Chris Sutcliffe of MediaVoices writes about how The Economist and The Financial Times operate personality-driven newsletters.
Sutcliffe writes, “Sarah Ebner is executive editor, director of editorial growth and engagement at the Financial Times. She noted that some newsletters, like their One Must-Read, invites feedback that is equally personal, and she will occasionally get an email decrying the choice of article. ‘Then very often, I’ll get a reply saying, ‘oh my god, I’m sure the next one will be fine. Thank you so much for replying’,’ she added. So while that aspect of a personality-led newsletter might be painful, it also deepens the relationship between brand and audience.
“Ebner said that she balks at the term ‘personality-led’, because of negative connotations. ‘I think people start thinking that when you say personality, you mean somebody’s really in your face,’ she said. Instead, she referred to Chris Giles on Central Banks – a financial newsletter – as being what she means when she talks about personality-led newsletters at the FT:
“‘The comments we get on the survey say, it’s insightful, it’s analytic, it’s useful. [But] he doesn’t put himself front and centre. He doesn’t talk about his life. He just talks about what he knows about. So it is personality-driven, but it’s more that he’s got the expertise and voice.'”
Read more here.
