The newsletter is here (well, almost)
Earlier this year, sometime in January, if my memory serves me right, I put out a tweet asking people if they’d be interested in a newsletter where I curated some of the best content from around the web. To my surprise, I got a decent response from those keen on the idea. The exact same question on Facebook got a similar response (with a lesser degree of enthusiasm, expectedly).
The idea was to put together a newsletter (weekly*) where I’ll collate some of the better long-form stories or documentaries or even podcasts from around the web so you don’t necessarily have to, and send it straight into your inbox.
It’s an idea that I’ve been toying around with for sometime, given how I’ve started consuming content these days. I wake up to newsletters. Before I head to bed, I end up going through one of those. It’s a habit. There’s so much content these days, and as part of what is the “attention economy” (pardon the jargon), every tiny bit of content being created (a gif, a tacky WhatsApp forward, a tweet, a long, well-reported saga story or even, a six-second Vine) is vying for your attention. It’s hard sometimes to keep up. There’s a lot happening around you with very little time to devote to the same, that includes content, of course.
This is where newsletters come in, giving you just about enough (quality) content you might want to consume. And there’s space for more, of course.
This was my starting point, an effort to reach out to an audience that wants to engage/consume some of the best content (at least what I try and read/watch) going around.
I am testing the waters for now. For the next two-three weeks (or even a month), I will send out a weekly newsletter (tentatively on Saturday or Sunday) which will have everything I’ve mentioned above – long reads, documentaries, podcasts, and even listicles. Consider this as a beta/testing phase. You can, of course, be a part of it. Subscribe here.
Your email address will not, I repeat, WILL NOT be misused for any other purposes (spam, e-commerce sites etc). Feel free to unsubscribe if you don’t like what is being offered. Also, your feedback at this stage, to quote the cliche, is extremely valuable. It’ll help plug a lot of hopes, think, rethink before I go live (tentatively next month).
Weekly* – I haven’t zeroed in on the frequency. Right now, a weekly newsletter seems more practical, more doable.
And yes, it’s free. Worry not.
PS: The other part of this project, is to get you involved in the process. The reasoning wasn’t too difficult to gauge. Varied interests, varied content consumption patterns (types included), varied preferences. The idea, as we go along, is to get and enable readers or guests become curators and send out their selection.
Feedback? Questions? Everything welcome.
Full disclosure: I am currently employed as a journalist with Mint, which is part of the Hindustan Times group.
