Don't kill the website (again)
Newsletters are great, but websites still makes the most sense as a publishing hub
We are in a period of digital media where people are, again, back to wondering if publishers still need websites. The rule of thumb these days is to create an email newsletter. After all, have you heard many people wanting to be the Quartz of X? No, they want to be the Morning Brew of X.
I recognize that this is a newsletter, which makes writing about newsletters as absurd as podcasts about podcasts and Clubhouse rooms to discuss Clubhouse. And I like email newsletters, a format that lends itself to being more magazine-like and personal (more on that below in my progress report for this newsletter at six months old.) There’s no one future of media, but there are bright spots in going narrow and deep in niches, having direct connections as opposed to undifferentiated scale, and in more personalized media. Newsletters do those jobs well.
But ultimately, I still believe the hub of most publishers will remain websites.
