Editorial Newsletters Masterclass by Revue

1. Editorial Newsletters Masterclass

2. • The newsletter resurgence • What about publishers? • Newsletter strategy • How to get started?

3. The newsletter renaissance Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2017 • Publishers started noticing as early as 2014 that relying on Facebook and other platforms was dangerous. • Readers started realising it’s hard to ﬁnd the right information to keep updated • Growth of mobile 2017 In Belgium, more people access news via email (34%) In the United States a quarter use email for news (24%)

4. theSkimm Founded by two friends who felt neglected by the news media, TheSkimm today informs more than 6.5 million millennials with their daily newsletter.

5. NextDraft Each morning Dave Pell visits about 75 news sites, plucks the top ten most fascinating items of the day, and delivers them with a fast, pithy wit that will make your computer device vibrate with delight. No bots. No computer algorithms.

6. LennyLetter Lena Dunham and Jennifer Konner launched Lenny Letter in 2015, a twice- weekly email newsletter, now 500,000 subscribers and an almost 50% open rate.

7. The email newsletter: an unglamorous, but highly effective way to get straight to the reader. Less spam Email was very discredited because of spam. People feel that they have more control now. People read more of your content Subscribers of newsletters are loyal readers. Newsletter are convenient for them. Short and digestible Newsletters have a beginning and end, in contrast to the never ending stream of social media. A way to get around Facebook Keep control over your distribution and effectively reach your audience in their inbox. Easy and mobile People understand email, it’s easy and familiar. Everybody has an email app installed on their mobile phone. Personal Email has always been a more intimate and personal way to reach an audience. POLIS: Back to the Future- Email Newsletters as a Digital Channel for Journalism

8. We’re not talking about promotional newsletters here Promotional • Focus on ROI • Not every promotion needs to appeal to every lead • Mainly optimized for conversion and/or branding Editorial • Focus on informing people • Provide a consistently high open rate • Valuable content to its readers in every edition • Mostly text driven, optimized for readability VS

10. So how about publishers? After betting on social media, publishers are now thinking about their strategies for building followings and reaching their audience in a meaningful way.

11. Casey Newton @CaseyNewton So many publishers think they have audiences, when what they really have is traffic. I think we’re about to find out who has an audience. Follow Casey’s newsletter about Facebook, social networks, and democracy: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton

12. Publication Flagship newsletter Subscribers Metrics Editorial staff Primary business model Blendle Daily Digest 700,000 30-40% OR 12 Micropayment Brief.me Brief.me 26,000 60% OR 3 Subscription Buzzfeed Buzzfeed News n/a 30% OR 2 Adverts, afﬁliate links Economist Espresso 50,000 50% OR 2 Subscription, adverts Financial Times FirstFT 160,000 25-50% OR 5 Engagement, adverts, conversion New York Times Morning brief 700,000 50-60% OR 12 Conversion Ozy Presidential daily brief 1,500,000 25-40% OR 3 Adverts Quartz Daily Brief 200,000 40% OR 4 Adverts The Browser The Browser 9,000 45% OR; 12% CTR 1 Subscription The Times Red Box 35,000 48% OR; 8-10% CTR 2 Conversion, adverts Washington Post The Daily n/a n/a Conversion Reuters: Editorial Email Newsletters - The Medium Is Not Only The Message Publishers are already doing this

13. Quartz Daily Brief A brieﬁng for smart, busy people. Sharing the most interesting news on global economy.

14. The New York Times 50+ email newsletters about a wide range of topics. General newsletters, topic newsletters, and personal newsletters.

16. NEWSLETTER MODEL From “dive” to “skim”. No single newsletter can address all different needs at once. NPR: Newsletter Product Development Findings v1.0 — 27 april 2016 Crosscut Public Media: Opt-in — 2017 Purely read Long form content written expressly for speciﬁc newsletter. Not available online. Mostly read Content expressly written for newsletter, with subtle options to click through (hyperlinks). Read and click through Some content is written for newsletter, but also click through options are pointed out. Mostly click through List of links curated by an editor. Requires clicking out to the internet. Purely click through Automated newsletter, not personalised by an editor, that acts as “catch-up”. Examples: LennyLetter Mic Slay Examples: Trump Daily NextDraft Examples: TheSkimm Casey Newton Examples: MediaShift Niemanlab Examples: The Guardian Today

17. NEWSLETTER MODEL From “dive” to “skim”. No single newsletter can address all different needs at once. example

18. AUDIENCE DEFINITION Who are your newsletter subscribers? NPR Newsletter Identity Exercise • Who are your newsletter subscribers? What audience will the newsletter serve? • Where does this audience hang out? Where do they get their news? • What does this audience desire in a newsletter from you? What need in this audience will this newsletter fulﬁll? • Where will subscribers be when they read this newsletter? NPR: Newsletter Product Development Findings v1.0 — 27 april 2016

19. FORMAT What format ﬁts your audience and the topic? Crosscut Public Media: Opt-in — 2017 • Tone of voice? Snarky, ﬁrst-person, casual, formal? • Depending on the model, how do you format your written content? Bullets, short paragraphs (commentary), full paragraphs, full article? • Visual content: eg. GIFs, videos, surveys, polls, CTAs

20. REVENUE MODELS Consider adding a monetization element as a part of your plan. Advertisement Paid ad placement, usually at a reserved spot, or a dedicated classiﬁeds section. Sponsoring Typically a stronger and more ongoing commitment between sponsor and newsletter compared to advertisement. Paid subscriptions Paywalled content. There’s a variety of models, eg premium sections in a newsletter, free newsletters with an upsell to additional paid issues. Conversion Newsletter readers are loyal, which might increase the conversion to other products, like memberships / subscriptions. Events / e-commerce Selling products, from ticket sales to an event hosted by your organization. Crosscut Public Media: Opt-in — 2017 Andrew Jack - There are at least eight promising business models for email newsletters “For the New Yorker, whether someone was a newsletter subscriber was the no. 1 indicator to predict if a NewYorker.com reader would become a subscriber”

21. REVENUE MODELS Consider adding a monetization element as a part of your plan. example example Stratechery - paid subscription New York Times - Advertisement

22. REVENUE MODELS Consider adding a monetization element as a part of your plan. Pocket - Sponsorship

23. MARKETING #1 question: How do I grow my subscriber list? Use the channels you have! DEDICATED PAGE Newsletter(s) signup page Preferences page

24. MARKETING #1 question: How do I grow my subscriber list? Use the channels you have! SIGN-UP BOXES Pop-up boxes Sidebar boxes Bottom boxes Inline sign-up units Top units Footer units

25. MARKETING #1 question: How do I grow my subscriber list? Use the channels you have! NEWSLETTER SHARING Social sharing Forwarding Sharing sections

26. MARKETING #1 question: How do I grow my subscriber list? Use the channels you have! OTHER PLATFORMS Instant Articles CTA units Facebook Lead Ads Facebook Page Calls to Action Twitter Lead Generation Cards Apple News Promo Unit AMP Forms

27. RESOURCES Strategy is one thing, commitment is a different story. Creating content for newsletters takes a lot of time! Make sure to: • Don’t focus on # of subscribers too much at the start (quality over quantity) • Pick a pace, focus on consistency • Test, ﬁnd your tone of voice • Assign dedicated author(s) and time

28. STATISTICS Personal, editorial newsletters simply perform better TRADITIONAL EMAIL CAMPAIGNS IN PUBLISHING INDUSTRY Avg. open rate: 22% Avg. click rate: 4.7% REVUE NEWSLETTERS Avg. open rate: 48% Avg. click rate: 29% Benchmarks by MailChimp Average rates for Revue newsletters OPEN RATES Lowest: Daily Deals, E-commerce, Vitamins, Marketing. Highest: Photo, Sports, Government, Religion.

29. STATISTICS There’s more to it than just open rates. The personal and intimate character of newsletters help engage with your audience.

31. The underlying tech can be hard. Developing newsletter tech in-house takes a signiﬁcant investment, so it’s not for every publisher. DigiDay - Publishers love newsletters, but grapple with the underlying tech “When a journalist wants to launch a personal newsletter, it takes months before they can actually start” - Large NY publisher “Our CRM has an email functionality but nobody wants to use it, because it’s hard to use and not user friendly” - Several Dutch newspapers

32. Promotional email platforms are not designed for editorial newsletters 1. Text editor focused on editorial production Allows writing long stories More akin to interfaces likes Medium, Tumblr, WordPress, or Ghost Allows for markdown 2. Pricing that aligns with publisher's objective. Flat rate per email sent, independently of the number of authors, send frequency, list size, etc. Affordable at larger volumes (there are small publishers with large lists)

33. Promotional email platforms are not designed for editorial newsletters 3. Template that works well for text Optimized for readability and mobile Works in any email client Must work without need for coding 4. Editorial workﬂow support Flat rate per email sent, independently of the number of authors, send frequency, list size, etc. Affordable at larger volumes (there are small publishers with large lists)

34. Promotional email platforms are not designed for editorial newsletters 5. Monetization features Supports sponsorships Supports paid subscriptions 6. No distractions No webshop integrations, etc. 7. Integrates well with other platforms Integration with content sources, like a (home-grown) CMS Allows to publish the content to other platforms Integrates with ad platforms

35. Promotional email platforms are not designed for editorial newsletters 8. Includes engagement tools Allows readers to comment and discuss Allows the readers to easily interact with the author(s)

36. Revue: any type of editorial newsletter on a single platform. Techstars

37. Thank you! Martijn de Kuijper martijn@getrevue.co