Back to the topic of why newsletters are a good choice for writers.
This piece by Simon Owens perfectly sums up my thoughts. In it, he opines that email newsletters are similar to the handmade zines of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. In contrast to carefully edited and displayed content of the web, newsletters are more haphazard:
Many newsletters feature a hodgepodge of unrelated sections, images, and GIFs, and they take a distinctly informal tone in their writing.
What makes this format work for both writer and reader?
It could be that, like those within the zine community, newsletter readers enjoy feeling like they’re in some sort of exclusive club. Sending a newsletter seems more like a private, intimate conversation compared to when you write for the open web.
But he finishes by stating that newsletters could suffer a potentially gloomy future:
Given our renewed obsession with Inbox Zero and the general feeling that we already receive too much email, it might soon become harder for new independent newsletters to break through the noise.
For now, it’s a fun tool to make use of!
