“Side parts are out. Tight pants are over. And newsletters are officially back.”
I laughed at that comment in Business 2 Community, riffing on the recent “cheugy” word wars. It seems Gen Zs (born 1997–2015) have decreed items supposedly loved by Millennials (born 1981–1996) to be out-of-date trends. (For the record, choose middle parts and straight leg or bootcut jeans.)
As the article says, newsletters are back. Or maybe, they’ve never really gone away.
I love newsletters and subscribe to quite a few. One of my faves recently hit a significant milestone for a supposedly out-of-date trend: Michael J. Katz has published 500 newsletters over 20+ years. But as he says, “These kinds of things are of minimal interest to readers. Don’t make them, or yourself, the overall focus.”
My own is monthly, and the June issue marks #100 in a surprising-to-me eight years. But this isn’t about me. That magical number is just the prompt that made me look more closely at the current value of newsletters.
So in said June issue, you’ll find reasons to start a newsletter, and what makes a good one. I draw on the wisdom of some people who’ve had newsletters for a long time, with links if you want to check them out.
Do you follow any of these people too? What newsletters do you love? Please share in the comments.
Wordnerdery is a quick read about words, effective/expressive writing, newsletters and more. Are you a subscriber yet? If yes, thanks for reading! If not, you can sign up right now. In keeping with Canada’s anti-spam laws and just plain good manners, you can easily unsubscribe any time.