

Twitter is killing the newsletter - bgnm2000
http://elliotnash.me/?p=33

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maxklein
Imagine this. I spread out my arms wide apart. My left palm represents
reality. My right palm represents the dimension where the author of this
article currently exists, but to get from left to right palm, you have to go
one time around the globe.

This article is so far from reality, it's stupid. The data point is a single
anectdotal one. There is no info on the data. There is no hint at all that
twitter had anything to do with the decline - it could just as well have been
birds pecking at the internet cables to all the subscribers houses and
disrupting exactly those packets.

Totally biased in-the-bubble speculation, this blog post is not even wrong,
it's just silly.

~~~
edw519
Every once in a while, I look at the comments before the original article,
just to see how I'd like to proceed.

I'm not going to read this article because no matter how good or bad it is, it
can't possibly be more entertaining than maxklein's assessment. I wish I could
just hit an F key to post this review whereever I wanted, replacing "twitter
had anything to do with the decline" with some context sensitive text.

~~~
access_denied
Many of us do it like that, thanks for spelling ist out. We are a crowd, here
on HN.

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dpcan
Twitter is _not_ killing, or even changing, the newsletter, and we know this.

For almost 10 years I've watched daily and weekly newsletters go out for a few
of my clients, and they attribute the _success of their businesses_ to these
newsletters which are basically blog posts filled with relevant content that
are emailed to lists that range from 1000 to 7000 people.

If you're click-throughs drop from 23% to 6%, you need to check if your
messages are being filtered as spam, you need to rethink whether your content
is relevant, and you need to double check the links in your email because they
may be going through a tracking service that is breaking down.

My clients who send newsletters _have_ added Twitter to their newsletters in
the form of a "follow me" button. The reason for this is because they post on
Twitter when they've sent out their latest newsletter and use it to chat with
their subscriber base.

Twitter is _not_ a newsletter replacement, but a tool that you could certainly
use to enhance communications with your subscriber base.

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georgekv
With regard to corporate newsletters and the like, I would be inclined to
agree.

=======

The article here though does seem to show that a more focused newsletter can
still be quite useful/valuable:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=865042>

~~~
Psyonic
In regards to corporate newsletters, this post was just as ridiculous. Twitter
likely had nothing to do with the decline. He has absolutely no evidence
indicating it in any way, other than twitter growing while the newsletter ctr
dropped. Nearly everyone on earth gets email, and has an email account.
Twitter's audience is minimal in comparison. But rather than say anymore, I'll
just refer you to maxklein's comment above. He really nailed it.

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jasonlbaptiste
Very very very very far from true. It definitely has the potential to at least
be a just as strong supplement down the road, though I highly doubt it. Here
are three key reasons why:

a) Email is the highest penetration of any utility on the web. Even more than
search. (I know, i know, i need to find this source again, but it's not far
fetched). Twitter is a blip on the radar in comparison.

b) Too much noise on twitter. When I read your newsletter, it's just me and
your newsletter. That's it. Twitter is surrounded by other noise including
lots of spam.

c) Twitter is the gateway, not the destination. 140 characters can't get
enough across. It can certainly get a link across... which will probably be to
the newsletter you just sent out.

~~~
roder
I couldn't believe someone would post this "twitter is killing the newsletter"
stuff the day after you posted that extensive post yesterday Jason... clearly
they're not reading HN.

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AndrewDucker
Well, Twitter+RSS.

If you're already getting updates as they happen then why on earth would you
care about monthly ones?

It's already bad enough with newspapers (yesterday's news - today!) - but
_monthly_ newsletters? Why would I care?

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mattmaroon
When I get a newsletter that's under 140,000 characters, let alone 140, I'll
buy it.

