Content curation in independent and media newsletters. Good practices and recommendations

Abstract

The recent surge in newsletters confirms their effectiveness as digital information products. Through content curation, newsletters enable journalists to connect with individual users specifically interested in their subject area. In this chapter, we present the main conclusions of six studies on newsletter curation from legacy and digital media outlets, as well as from independent journalists. We also provide a compendium of best practices and recommendations for improving the quality of journalistic newsletters. Offering quality newsletters compensates users for the overwhelming amount of information on the internet. At the same time, newsletters allow media outlets to strengthen their ties with their audience, increase user loyalty, and, eventually, increase their subscriber base. To improve quality, we recommend that newsletters have an identified author and abundant, curated content from varied sources in terms of origin (internal and external), time range, and morphology. There should also be variation in the use of curation techniques and link functions.