This story first appeared on RJI’s Futures Lab. Reporting by Whitney Matewe.
Email newsletters are far from new, but recently there’s been a resurgence in their popularity. With this renewed interest come new techniques. We look at five innovative approaches to delivering newsletters, inspired by Clover Letter, BuzzFeed and TheSkimm.
For more information:
- BuzzFeed has 12 core newsletters but, in total, close to 30 different newsletter brands — like DIY, Food and Animals. Their newest is the “Gift Guide” newsletter, which launched in late July.
- Clover Letter recently launched a mobile app for iOS users. The app features shareable archives allowing subscribers to search for specific topics and content.
- TheSkimm offers a mobile subscription service called Skimm Ahead that’s available for iPhone users. The app automatically syncs to people’s digital calendars to alert them of big news and cultural events. For examples, users might see in their calendars “reminders for tax day, Tuesday’s New York presidential primary and Netflix’s rollout of the second season of “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Rachel Wise is an editor at the Futures Lab at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and co-producer of the weekly Futures Lab video update.
The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Futures Lab video update features a roundup of fresh ideas, techniques and developments to help spark innovation and change in newsrooms across all media platforms. Visit the RJI website for the full archive of Futures Lab videos, or download the receive email notification of each new episode.
