TL;DR:
Pull out the red pen and start crossing out what’s no longer working. Do not go into 2021 with the mentality of “this is how we’ve always done it.” This year has shown us that we need to adjust how we serve our audiences.
Pull all the email data you can for the past three years. If the data is showing you that no one’s reading your sports content in email, pandemic or not, then nix that newsletter. Find out what other channels resonate more with that audience, create a strategy around serving them there, and invite those newsletter subscribers to join you.
Do this for all your newsletters. Commit to developing a more intentional strategy around your newsletters that have high engagement, retention and loyalty rates.
If you think automating your daily and weekly newsletters will take work off your plate, you’re wrong. They’ll make your job harder when your subscribers start tuning out and unsubscribing — and you’ll have nothing to show for all your work at the end of the year.
The next time you think of automating a newsletter, instead think of how you can innovate. Innovation sometimes looks like subject-line testing, removing content from the lineup that’s not performing, suppressing chronic non-openers for a few sends, developing segments, implementing re-engagement emails, and trusting your news judgment on what your subscribers need in the moment.
Less is always more. Modern designs are impersonal and they signal transactional relationships — especially after the holiday onslaught of retail emails we’ll all be drowning in soon enough.
Redefine your relationship with your subscriber via the more simple and intimate: plain text. Plain text is where it’s at, my friends. And if you insist on an image, go ahead and add a simple header to that email — but that’s it. Use your good old print-days typography and layout skills to weave a story via email.
Curation and engagement are now the bare minimum required to keep anyone’s attention past the welcome email. Think beyond the click and toward the share for increased retention and loyalty rates. You want your subscribers to rally their network toward your publication by sharing signup links on their socials, group chats, and the online communities they’ve invested in. Nurture them toward these actions with carefully crafted retention journeys and loyalty programs.
Jacqué Palmer is a senior content strategist focused on newsletters for Gannett.
TL;DR:
Pull out the red pen and start crossing out what’s no longer working. Do not go into 2021 with the mentality of “this is how we’ve always done it.” This year has shown us that we need to adjust how we serve our audiences.
Pull all the email data you can for the past three years. If the data is showing you that no one’s reading your sports content in email, pandemic or not, then nix that newsletter. Find out what other channels resonate more with that audience, create a strategy around serving them there, and invite those newsletter subscribers to join you.
Do this for all your newsletters. Commit to developing a more intentional strategy around your newsletters that have high engagement, retention and loyalty rates.
If you think automating your daily and weekly newsletters will take work off your plate, you’re wrong. They’ll make your job harder when your subscribers start tuning out and unsubscribing — and you’ll have nothing to show for all your work at the end of the year.
The next time you think of automating a newsletter, instead think of how you can innovate. Innovation sometimes looks like subject-line testing, removing content from the lineup that’s not performing, suppressing chronic non-openers for a few sends, developing segments, implementing re-engagement emails, and trusting your news judgment on what your subscribers need in the moment.
Less is always more. Modern designs are impersonal and they signal transactional relationships — especially after the holiday onslaught of retail emails we’ll all be drowning in soon enough.
Redefine your relationship with your subscriber via the more simple and intimate: plain text. Plain text is where it’s at, my friends. And if you insist on an image, go ahead and add a simple header to that email — but that’s it. Use your good old print-days typography and layout skills to weave a story via email.
Curation and engagement are now the bare minimum required to keep anyone’s attention past the welcome email. Think beyond the click and toward the share for increased retention and loyalty rates. You want your subscribers to rally their network toward your publication by sharing signup links on their socials, group chats, and the online communities they’ve invested in. Nurture them toward these actions with carefully crafted retention journeys and loyalty programs.
Jacqué Palmer is a senior content strategist focused on newsletters for Gannett.
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Don Day Business first, journalism second
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
An Xiao Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different