I don’t know what’s happened or why, but newsletters have fast become A Thing. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve existed for a while and we're all too familiar with the instant deleting that usually happens when one enters your inbox. But that’s because we’ve been doing it wrong this whole time; the newsletters we’re used to getting are shitty TfL deals or Groupon alerts. Turns out there’s actually a load of newsletters out there that are worth getting on the mailing list for.
During my 'research' I signed up to about fifty newsletters and immediately felt pretty damn smug and about 300% more intelligent. And I hadn't even read one yet. Ipso facto, newsletters improve your self esteem and IQ.
1. The New York Times
Right, so they have a lot of newsletters and you can subscribe depending on what your interests are – I particularly like ‘What We’re Reading’ mainly because I don’t really have a mind of my own and ‘Opinion Today’ for the same reason. Oh and NYT Living because: clothes and food and shit.
2. Scoopinion
So this is a bit of a cheat newsletter because you’re not signing up to a website’s newsletter. Scoopionion is a Google Chrome extension which tracks the kind of articles you read online as well as how you read them, and curates your very own weekly newsletter of articles they reckon you’d like. It might be a shock when the first newsletter is full of animal videos and memes (that is where you’re at right now and that’s okay) but soon it’ll be sending you totally intellectual stuff. Because that’s what you are. Intellectual.
3. *Girl Lost in the City *by Emma Gannon
As well as your day of rest, Sunday is, from here on in, the day you receive your wekely newsletter from blogger, writer and author, Emma Gannon. It’s a little different every week but you can count on a long list of stuff she’s been reading/watching/listening to that week ( so you should immediately follow suit) as well as her own pieces and basically any other things she reckons you should know about but you don’t yet.
4. The Dolly Mail by Dolly Alderton
Writer and Sunday Times dating columnist Dolly Alderton's writes a weekly Wednesday newsletter with a entertaining essay about what's going on in her brain that week (last week was all about her 'Wedding List Abstinence'). On top of that, there's a weekly guest, recipe, shopping inspo, a playlist and ‘the rest’ which is an amalgamation of articles, videos and whatever else, that you should have on your radar. Into it.
5. Ann Friedman
Ann Friedman is pretty much a veteran of the newsletter world (she started hers in 2013) so it would be rude not to sign up. She's a writer and weekly columnist for NYmag.com, plus she co-hosts the awesome podcast, *Call Your Girlfriend *which in itself is reason enough to sign-up right away. You’ll find out what she’s reading, what she’s watching and what she’s ‘endorsing’ all washed down with a nice big dose of GIFs, because who doesn’t want that?
6. Lenny Letter
This probably isn’t a new one to you but Lenny Letters comes from the co-creators of Girls, Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner and they call it ‘the email newsletter where there's no such thing as too much information’. Now, just to caveat that, there is a lot of information on them. Like, this isn’t a dip-in-and-out kind of newsletter but as they say, it doesn’t mean it’s too much. Expect essays from empowering and inspiring women on a huge range of topics: this week Jane Fonda talks us through her journey into feminism and there’s a ‘How To’ on throwing a potluck party. To quote our deputy editor, Jess, ‘it’s so good, it makes me feel bad’.
7. The Debrief
You didn’t think we were going to ignore our very own newsletter did you? Every Monday we bring you the pick of our best stories from the past week, as well as four new things you should know about that come under our Raving, Behaving, Craving and Saving section. Like a new pair of sunglasses we’re coveting, the new podcast we can’t stop chatting about or exclusive competitions and events. Basically, if you’re not signed up, you need to have a word with yourself. And then sign up. Obviously.
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Follow Chemmie on Twitter @chemsquier
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.