The personal touch remains key to newsletters
Plus: Influencers as journalists (or journalists as influencers?) + lessons learned from Politico's growth and influence
Good afternoon,
And hello from a ridiculously sunny Preston - it's scorchio outside!
The What I've Been Reading digest is back after the Easter school holidays and as usual brings you three (hopefully) interesting pieces from across the digital and journalism world to enjoy and get you thinking.
A reminder, although I do post it on socials, the best way to keep updated is to subscribe direct so it drops straight in your inbox each Wednesday afternoon. You can do so below, and please do send it on to anyone who you think might find it useful.
In no particular order, let's get going...
Influencers become journalists - Jessica Maddox, Nieman Lab - this is a few months old but still feels very relevant, Jessica expands on how influencers are increasingly being seen as journalists. They've built an audience, they have access to influential/powerful people, and can ask questions of them. Are they journalists? I guess so, in a way. They certainly have the power/ability to shine a light and expose wrong-doing. The question though is will they ever give a politician or others a grilling? It's content, yes, but it's not journalism but the blurring of the ground between the two is ever-increasing - especially with multimedia content across multiple platforms. They key for journalists is the ever-growing trend of personality for individual journalists, being one-and-the-same with the brand you work for or represent or a brand in your own right is accelerating...
Five trends from this year's publisher podcast and newsletter shortlists - Esther Kezia Thorpe/Media Voices - a great round-up of what's emerging across the newsletter and podcast space. Top lines are the launch of new podcasts has slowed slightly (I think that's a reflection on the barrier to entry starting to increase), there's more subscriber-only/premium offerings when it comes to both newsletters and pods (or offering that content as an incentive to paid-subscribe), and linked to the influencers point above the newsletters which have a clear personal-identity and voice are cutting through. There's also the rise of the 'feature episode', so a one-on-one interview isn't enough, people want more depth and exploration beyond just hearing from one person. And 'limited run' series podcasts are also becoming more popular, I think this is also likely driven by cost - so it's cheaper to and more effective to drive behind a limited run than try to do something every week, or every day.
I'm going to be attending the Publisher Newsletter and Podcast Summit in June in London, looks like a great agenda and good luck to everyone nominated across both sets of awards (I'm judging some of the newsletter categories and there's some fantastic work!).
Making political news pay the Politico way - Press Gazette, Future of Media Explained - I wrote recently about how Politico was increasingly becoming the Playbook for MPs and other policy-wonks/political analysts/watchers, with many referencing it above the Today programme for the influence it has. Kate Day talks about their expansion and growth in this revealing podcast. Well worth a listen - it's just over 25-minutes.
That's the round up for this week, I'm deep in local elections coverage this week in Preston and Lancashire. We're attempting to do local election profiles for each of the seats/divisions in the Lancashire County Council elections which Blog Preston covers. It's fair to say getting hold of candidates in some places has proved, err, challenging! It's always interesting how politicians/would-be politicians respond and engage with journalists when approached. If you can find them in the first place...
Also, a quick plug, The Lead who we work closely with through Alma then there's a limited-time offer for 30% off a paid-subscription to support the newsletter and access exclusive content each month which runs until tonight - so act fast if you want to sign up.
Hope you have a great rest of the week. As always, anything you think I should be featuring then drop over to ed@almaonline.co.uk
Keep going.
Ed