How to discover value and build loyalty with newsletters

Left to right: moderator Suchandrika Chakrabarti, Maire Bonheim (The Telegraph), Henry Bird (The Times) and Jem Collins (Journo Resources)

Credit: Credit: Mousetrap Media / Frank Noon

A good newsletter "feels like a friend coming into your inbox with some insider knowledge," says Jem Collins, director of Journo Resources, speaking at Newsrewired last week (22 May 2024)

She was joined by speakers from The Telegraph and The Times to discuss how to build audience loyalty through newsletters.

Changing environments

Newsletters can suit larger, legacy brands, as well as more niche and specialist titles.

The Telegraph, under the watch of head of newsletters Maire Bonheim, produces 36 newsletters. Some of these are free-to-access while others are tucked behind a paywall.

Maire said newsletters are "a case of constant interaction" with readers, informed by surveys and reader replies. Particularly when writing about money, writers have been keen to speak directly to the reader and their needs rather than providing broader and generalised coverage of issues. Audience-first strategies such as these have doubled the clickthrough rates of newsletters.

Mousetrap Media / Frank Noon

Maire Bonheim, head of newsletters, The Telegraph

Collins added that creating the right newsletter is "a constant process", as her recipient list has shifted from entry-level journalists searching for job opportunities to those further into their careers. Some 20k journalists receive her email each Tuesday.

It takes time

The Times launched a Football newsletter in 2022 before the World Cup with a "back to basics" approach, a model which was later adapted to its other 33 newsletters. Henry Bird, newsletter editor for The Times, says that more emphasis on visualisations and graphics, plus a regular ‘reader question’ section, has helped its newsletters reach an average open rates of 70 per cent.

Newsletter readers want content geared towards them, not a bunch of links inserted without much thought given. The Telegraph saw little interest in newsletters that did this, and at The Times, this even led to high numbers of people cancelling.

Pay close attention to the times of day and days of week that newsletters are published. But Bonheim stressed that it depends on the subject matter. For instance, its gardening newsletters perform best on Saturdays whereas puzzles work best on Sundays. Bird agreed, adding that the politics newsletters like Best of Times generally is most read on Tuesday evenings when people have their midweek downtime.

For this exact reason, Journo Resources publishes its weekly job-listing newsletter each Tuesday evening. Collins and her team also conduct an annual "soft data" survey where readers share how the publication has helped with their job hunting experience.

Mousetrap Media / Frank Noon

Jem Collins, director of Journo Resources

"Evenings are also the best time for searching for new jobs," says Collins. "So the boss is not looking over your back all the time."

No silver bullets

Different newsletters require different metrics, curation strategies and frequency of output. Publishers need to test and learn to see what works best, or adjust according to wider contexts.

Fashion newsletters from The Times, for instance, prioritise external links over its own bespoke content. Its TV and theatre coverage is often limited to one column and tailored to a "what's on" guide, in response to user feedback as to what readers wanted and liked to see.

Mousetrap Media / Frank Noon

Henry Bird, newsletter editor, The Times

The Telegraph's Dispatches newsletter, on the other hand, was released once a day when the Russian Invasion of Ukraine was first declared, but now is only released twice a week.

Developing voices

Bonheim says that newsletters allow unique voices to come through the product, citing Royal correspondent Camilla Tominey as an example with her "sassy and honest" reporting style.

Best of Times secures roughly half a million daily readers and audiences are generally mixed with their demands. Some want informal, conversational topics, while others want fact-throwing, fast-paced material. Bird says there is a balance to be struck, as he mixes ten bulletin stories with an in-depth report on the biggest story of the day.

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