the.com/newsletter
A blog wearing a suit, sliding into your inbox before you can say unsubscribe.
means A regularly distributed publication, typically delivered by email or post, that updates a specific audience on news, ideas, or products.
from A transparent compound of "news" and "letter," both old English-friendly words. "News" is simply "new" pluralized into "new things" (paralleling Middle Dutch and German formations), while "letter" descends from Latin "littera," a written character or epistle. The pairing is modern: it named the printed bulletins that organizations and societies mailed to members, long before any inbox existed to dread them.
- older than print
- Handwritten newsletters circulated among merchants in the 1500s
- gold rush
- Substack writers earn millions from emails alone
- open rates
- A quarter opened counts as wild success
- unsubscribe link
- Legally required since the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
- the comeback
- Email outlived the social platforms meant to kill it
the morning brew — daily email newsletter with 2.5+ million subscribers covering tech and startup news
the skimm — women-focused daily news newsletter founded 2012, 10 million+ subscribers
substack — platform launched 2017 where writers send paid newsletters directly to subscribers