At a time when media organisations are staring down a potential loss of nearly all of their SEO traffic, newsletters offer a rare and powerful opportunity: a direct, unfiltered connection with your audience. 

Unlike search and social platforms, e-mail isn’t subject to capricious changes in reach or engagement. When a reader signs up for your newsletter, they’re inviting you into their daily routine — and signaling trust in your content.

Newsletters aren’t just about distribution; they’re about relationship-building. In this newsletter, I’m going to talk about the importance of newsletters and offer examples of news brands innovating and engaging their audiences with well-crafted newsletters.

I’d love to hear about your newsletter strategies, too: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Amalie

Newsletters are a great tool for engaging audiences

By some estimates, more than half of the world’s population is signed up for newsletters. I get too many a day to count in my various e-mail accounts. I read some regularly, some infrequently, and some not at all (I really should unsubscribe to those).

I sometimes learn about breaking news from a newsletter. Often, I get context and analysis. Some of these news brands are ones I visit directly, but often they’re not. My only interaction comes via their newsletters.

Newsletters are one of the most reliable ways to build direct relationships with readers at a time when direct engagement is becoming even more essential. Perhaps that’s why newsletters continue to gain momentum.

“Newsletters, a decades-old medium, have fluctuated in popularity over time,” the Columbia Journalism Review’s Klaudia Jaźwińska wrote in May. “But in an era dominated by algorithm-driven feeds and platform disintermediation, they offer a compelling value proposition for publishers aiming to cultivate direct, lasting relationships with readers.”

Claire Zulkey, managing editor at Inbox Collective, had an interesting piece in May about what newsletter writers can learn from alumni magazine writers. Among her advice:

• Identify your audience and hone your voice for those readers. And don’t try to be “everything to everybody,” Zulkey writes. “If you want your readers to read your work, know them. Talk to them. Don’t start from a place of just trying to get the most subscriptions or shares.” 

• Don’t be afraid to be playful, to find new ways to tap experts in your network, and to find intelligent, thoughtful ways to probe spicy subjects that will get your readers talking.

• Take your time to think of a good headline — don’t just dash off some descriptive but boring words. “Don’t wait until right before publication to start brainstorming. Keep a running, written list of what you come up with as you prepare to publish,” Zulkey writes.

Newsletters are a proven tool for subscriber acquisition and retention — and from the newsroom side, engagement also is key. 

Here are four pieces of advice for honing your own newsletter strategy:

1. Lead with a clear reader promise: Any successful newsletter starts with a clear and compelling value proposition. What’s in it for the reader? Whether it’s daily insight, expert curation, or a fresh perspective, your newsletter’s name, subject line, and intro should quickly reinforce that promise — and deliver on it consistently.

2. Focus on the author more than the brand: Newsletters perform best when readers feel a personal connection. Lean into the power of individual writers — their tone, perspective, and curation — rather than making newsletters overly institutional. Readers return for a familiar voice they trust, not just the logo at the top.

3. Design for engagement, not just distribution: Avoid turning newsletters into a passive content dump. Instead, treat them as a conversation starter — with reader polls, Q&As, memory prompts, or feedback loops. These touches drive loyalty and signal that your newsroom values reader voices.

4. Personalise when possible: Rather than trying to be all things to all people, offer tailored experiences. Let users choose between general briefings, niche topics, or author-specific newsletters. Newsletters with focused audiences often deliver stronger open and click-through rates — and build deeper engagement over time.

What’s your best newsletter advice? E-mail me: amalie.nash@inma.org.

Let’s look at newsletters worth replicating 

The majority of news brands have a suite of newsletters that includes a daily briefing and others around themes and topics — politics, sports, food, individual authors, the list goes on. Here, I wanted to highlight two examples of newsletters that are smartly audience-centric and engaging. 

BBC’s “In History” newsletter born from audience feedback

The BBC launched its popular In History newsletter in March 2024 (it came up during a stop on our study tour during INMA’s World Congress, and I later followed up with the BBC for more details). Published every Thursday, it draws on the BBC’s rich audio and video archive to revisit key historical events that still resonate today, said Danny Boyle, head of newsletters at BBC Studios.

“Readers told us they valued the BBC’s history content for being engaging, reliable, and trustworthy — and were looking for more,” Boyle said. “To serve that appetite, we created a weekly newsletter offering curated articles, podcasts, and videos tied to moments from that week in history. Each edition features a standout highlight: a never-before-seen BBC radio script, offering a rare glimpse into how major moments were originally broadcast.”

Now, 15 months in, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, Boyle said. Readers have described the newsletter as “a little slice of solace,” “a great idea and well executed,” and “excellent information from the past putting the present in perspective,” he said.

In History’s subscriber list has steadily grown at around 5% month-over-month. It has one of the most engaged audiences among the BBC’s newsletters, with open and click-through rates consistently high, even as the subscriber base grows. 

Cross-promotion in other BBC newsletters, along with placements on the BBC.com homepage and within history articles, have been effective in attracting new readers, Boyle said. 

Reader interaction has become central to the newsletter, Boyle said, noting the In History audience has arguably the strongest sense of community among the BBC’s newsletters. 

“After each edition, we receive a large number of e-mails, often with readers sharing personal memories related to the events we cover,” Boyle said. “As the audience has grown, so too has the volume of reader memories. To help manage this, we introduced an automated reply earlier this year that thanks readers for their message and requests their name, age, and location (as each featured memory includes these details). While we only spotlight one memory per edition, we still aim to respond to every message — especially those that are particularly moving.”

Major global moments, like the JFK assassination or Winston Churchill’s funeral, tend to perform particularly well and generate strong personal responses, as do cultural anniversaries such as The Wizard of Oz, Boyle said.

“But readers are particularly drawn to 20th-century stories, remarking that the newsletter offers ‘a fresh perspective on a moment I remember,’” he said.

The BBC is continuing to explore new ways to grow the newsletter and further expand its broader history coverage, Boyle said.

“We regularly share insights and audience feedback with our BBC.com colleagues, who also publish In History articles each week. These learnings influence both topic selection and editorial approach.”

The Atlantic cuts through the noise with One Story to Read Today

The Atlantic, which has many beautifully curated newsletters, launched One Story to Read Today in November 2021. It’s quickly grown to one of its most successful newsletters, said Bhumika Tharoor, managing editor at The Atlantic who oversees audience, newsletters, and programming. 

“The simplicity eases readers in: here’s One Story To Read,” he said. “The newsletter team identifies one grippy story of the day and deliberates over what would make the best subject line. Later, we analyse what worked.”

List growth and open rates have been consistently strong since launch. The Atlantic closely monitors list size, open rate, click-through rate, and conversions. 

“We definitely consider this an acquisition play: It’s incredibly effective at bringing our journalism to new readers and has the highest conversion rate of newsletters in our portfolio,” Tharoor said.

Do you have a great newsletter example to share? E-mail me: amalie.nash@inma.org. 

Mark your calendars

Upcoming INMA events that shouldn’t be missed:

• July 16: “Beyond Traditional Advertising: Building Revenue Through Events and Strategic Diversification,” presented by Frederic Kachar, CEO at Editora Globo, and Sara Stiegelmair, head of digital ad sales at Russmedia Digital. Register now.

• July 23: “Subscription Masters with El País: Building Spain’s Leading News Subscription,” presented by Luis Baena, former chief marketing officer at Prisa Media. Register now.

• August 6: “Using AI to Help Reporters,” presented by Tim O'Rourke, vice-president/editorial innovation and AI strategy at Hearst Newspapers, and Rune Ytreberg, head of iTromsø’s data journalism lab at Polaris Media Group. Register now. 

About this newsletter

Today’s newsletter is written by Amalie Nash, based in Denver, Colorado, United States, and lead for the INMA Newsroom Transformation Initiative. Amalie will share research, case studies, and thought leadership on the topic of bringing newsrooms into the business of news.

This newsletter is a public face of the Newsroom Transformation Initiative by INMA, outlined here. E-mail Amalie at amalie.nash@inma.org or connect with her on INMA’s Slack channel with thoughts, suggestions, and questions.

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