I remain hopeful that people will figure out how to do local news that are just daily morning newsletters. Because honestly, I do not need to read so much more about my city, let a lone do I need a huge website with clickbait articles.
Honestly, I‘d be happy to just have 10 stories from my hometown every morning. Some politics, some stuff from my neighborhood, some business, some sports.
This whole website thing is a dead end for news. You need too many people and then you annoy your subscribers with stupid clickbait headlines because you need the advertising dollars as well.
Of course, when you have too many people on the administrative side, you need all the bloat to keep the lights on while the newsroom staff continues to shrink.
Check out "The Edinburgh Minute", from Edinburgh, Scotland, on here for a good answer to that one. https://edinburghminute.substack.com/ A real life journalist (Michael McLeod) publishing a read-in-60-seconds morning newsletter that links through to longer stories on multiple other websites. The stats are impressive, and it now has enough subscribers that it's just become his full-time job. He also helped set up "The Glasgow Wrap" for Scotland's biggest city which follows the same model.
Currently around 50% of the things I curate & publish each newsletter comes from readers' contributions of much more local (aka hyperlocal) news, which helps to set the Minute apart from what those existing publications are churning out. Gives it a good community feel. Had 360 sent in so far this year via a google form. I fact-check them, paste them in and include links to sources. The model could work anywhere, and happy to report that I'm working entirely for free with people from all over in helping them set up their own Minute-style models. Best 'job' ever.
I remain hopeful that people will figure out how to do local news that are just daily morning newsletters. Because honestly, I do not need to read so much more about my city, let a lone do I need a huge website with clickbait articles.
Yeah, the genius of the daily morning newsletter is you can read it and be done in a matter of minutes. It takes a lot of the pressure off.
Honestly, I‘d be happy to just have 10 stories from my hometown every morning. Some politics, some stuff from my neighborhood, some business, some sports.
This whole website thing is a dead end for news. You need too many people and then you annoy your subscribers with stupid clickbait headlines because you need the advertising dollars as well.
Of course, when you have too many people on the administrative side, you need all the bloat to keep the lights on while the newsroom staff continues to shrink.
Check out "The Edinburgh Minute", from Edinburgh, Scotland, on here for a good answer to that one. https://edinburghminute.substack.com/ A real life journalist (Michael McLeod) publishing a read-in-60-seconds morning newsletter that links through to longer stories on multiple other websites. The stats are impressive, and it now has enough subscribers that it's just become his full-time job. He also helped set up "The Glasgow Wrap" for Scotland's biggest city which follows the same model.
Belated but hearty thanks for the shout-out Gavin!
Pretty cool.
Next step would be to cover the top stories without having to rely on existing papers.
Currently around 50% of the things I curate & publish each newsletter comes from readers' contributions of much more local (aka hyperlocal) news, which helps to set the Minute apart from what those existing publications are churning out. Gives it a good community feel. Had 360 sent in so far this year via a google form. I fact-check them, paste them in and include links to sources. The model could work anywhere, and happy to report that I'm working entirely for free with people from all over in helping them set up their own Minute-style models. Best 'job' ever.
The "renting audiencies" part was just humbling and brutal. Damn. Great read.
Thank you!
I really appreciate all the work you put in, thank you.
Thanks for saying that. It really does mean a lot.