Newsletter Edition Writer From Your Notes

Before you write, list everything you could include this week. Then choose the most specific item, the one only you can tell. It might be a decision you made, a number that surprised you, or a mistake and what it taught you. That item leads, even if it isn't the newest.

Rank the rest by importance. Newspapers call this the inverted pyramid: the Purdue Online Writing Lab describes the most fundamental facts at the top and the rest in order of importance². That way, an editor who needs to cut can cut from the bottom. When your edition runs long, do the same.

Keep a running list of possible leads between editions, so send day starts with a choice instead of a blank page. An editorial calendar gives each idea a date.

Most readers skim. In a 2006 eyetracking study of 42 people, Nielsen Norman Group found that readers spent an average of 51 seconds on a newsletter after opening it³. They read only 19% of newsletters in full. Introductions went unread by 67% of readers, though they averaged just three lines.

So skip the warm-up: no apology for being late, no weather report, no "Hope your week is going well." State the lead plainly in your first two sentences, then say in one line what else the edition holds. A reader who stops there still got the news.

Give each idea its own short section, written for someone reading on a phone between other things.

1. 1

   Make the heading do the work

   Say what the reader gets, key words first. A heatmap from the same study shows readers concentrating on the first two words of the headlines³. "Packing mugs so they arrive in one piece" tells a skimmer more than "Quick tip."

2. 2

   Read before you link

   Open every page you share, then add a sentence on why it's worth a click. A link with nothing of yours beside it is a bookmark, not a recommendation.

3. 3

   Add your take

   It's the part readers can't get anywhere else, so write it the way you'd explain it to one subscriber. If several people write the newsletter, a short brand voice guide keeps it sounding like one sender.

4. 4

   Ask for one thing

   Close with one request that fits this week, such as a reply, a forward or the sale that ends Friday. Ask for four things at once and they compete.

Write these once the edition is finished, so they describe what's in it. Nielsen Norman Group's research with hundreds of emails found readers prefer subject lines that say what the newsletter contains over ones that give its name or date⁴. One of its examples, "April 2014 eNewsline," says nothing about what's inside. Put the key words first and keep to 40 characters, as NN/g advises, since many inboxes show fewer.

Preview text is the line most inboxes show beside or under the subject, so set it yourself. Litmus, which sells email testing software, notes that inboxes otherwise pull it from the first lines of copy in your email⁵, or sometimes from an image's alt text. It recommends keeping preview text under 90 characters. Use it to add what the subject leaves out, not to repeat it.

In the US, an edition that promotes what you sell may count as commercial email under the CAN-SPAM Act. For messages that mix promotion with other content, the FTC's guide looks at the subject line, where the promotion sits and how much of the message it fills⁶. If a reader would take the subject line as promoting something, or the body as mainly promotional, the law applies.

In that case, the subject line must accurately reflect the content. Each edition also needs your valid postal address and a clear way to opt out, and you must honor opt-outs within 10 business days. Check that your email platform's footer covers both.

Don't judge an edition by its open rate. Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection in 2021 to help users prevent senders from knowing when they open an email⁷, so your open count can't reliably tell you who read it. Clicks and replies record what readers actually did.

After each send, note which links people clicked and what they wrote back. Over a few editions, a pattern shows which kinds of lead your readers want more of.

Short on time this week? Paste your notes into the box at the top of this page, and River drafts the edition for you to finish, subject lines included. To grow the list, a lead magnet ebook gives people a reason to subscribe, and a welcome email sequence greets them before your next edition arrives.