The strategy behind Crain’s newsletter rollout

Shan Wang of the Nieman Journalism Lab writes about how Crain Communications has launched email newsletters in markets where it doesn’t have printed business newspapers.

Wang writes, “To serve the communities where Crain’s doesn’t currently run a dedicated magazine, newspaper, or website, the company has launched nine city-based morning email newsletters that draw from a mix of original content, stories from Crain’s publications, and business- and tech-related stories from other news outlets. Currently, readers in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C., can sign up for the free curated emails tailored to their cities (there are also breaking news email options for each location). Emails go out to subscribers around 8 a.m. each weekday in their time zones.

“Sounds pretty standard — but behind the well-oiled machine are dedicated editors in each location, as well as content management and customization software that can pull together engagement metrics to individually shape each email that goes out to a reader. Crain hired Sean Flanagan, who’s worked at Maxim, Reader’s Digest, and National Geographic, as publisher of the new newsletters brand.

“Editors in each location sort through hundreds of relevant business-related news stories writing introductory text and adding punchier headlines as needed. Subscribers can choose the topics that interest them, from about a dozen options. The newsletters’ content may change from one day to the next, based on which stories in the previous day’s newsletters readers are clicking on.”

Read more here.