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    The Best Newsletters to Subscribe to for a Smarter 2023
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The Best Newsletters to Subscribe to for a Smarter 2023

It’s a tenuous proposition: trading ready access to your inbox in exchange for a promised value-add. But the best newsletters are well-worth your time, and will justify the space they take up in your inbox. More importantly, the best newsletters understand you have limited bandwidth for anything less than stellar journalism and a concise flow of information.

Today, we review the top 22 newsletters across a variety of categories, broadening your horizons and keeping you up to date with the latest 2023 has to offer.

Best newsletters in the world

Before We Get Started…

We’re about to present a truckload of newsletters, doing our best to get you stoked enough to subscribe to one or more. However, with great power comes greater responsibility, so heed our words on how to get the most out of your subscriptions:

Don’t over-commit

Signing up for two or three newsletters to fill the gaps in your day is smart. Signing up for 10 newsletters, on the other hand, is a recipe for regret.

You might feel genuine motivation to read it all at first. But constraints on your time and attention span may eventually impose the burden of choosing which to open and which to ignore. The glut of information will prevent you from building a relationship with your content curators. As such, enthusiasm can quickly dwindle into apathy or even annoyance.

Be judicious picking the choicest morsels for your tastes, and leave the rest for another time or inbox.

Make sure to confirm your subscriptions

So you’ve found the perfect newsletter, gleefully smashing the subscribe button with an email address in tow. Then you wait patiently for the goodness to arrive in your inbox… then you wait some more. Then, you forget about it and go on with your life deprived of the content you so fancied.

This is a preventable situation, so long as you exercise some due diligence in checking your inbox (or spam folder) immediately after subscribing. Oftentimes, there will be a request to confirm that you’re human (or at least, not a bot), set communications preferences, or handle other initial config.

It’s best practice to assume all newsletters require this extra step, even if the majority of them don’t. 

Whitelist your newsletters

There are various proprietary methods for ensuring your newsletters don’t go straight to spam. But the simplest is to add the mailer address to your contacts list.

This point also ties into the one above; many newsletters specifically request you confirm your intention to subscribe to their content so that they don’t get caught by spam filters or worse–manual removal to junk mail. Help them help you–whitelist your newsletters.

Don’t be afraid to unsubscribe

Seriously, if you find a newsletter doesn’t really fit with your interests or availability, get rid of it. There’s no reason to let the unread messages pile up and crowd-out the emails you do actually want to read.

Oftentimes, there are also communications preferences you can manage to decrease the frequency with which you receive newsletters. It’s a viable alternative to the nuclear option; after all, the dose makes the poison.

Best Newsletters for the News

1. The Daily Upside

Spoiler: The Daily Upside easily snags our top recommendation for a daily briefing newsletter. So, if you’re short on time and looking for a quick news fix, The Daily Upside is it.

There’s a perverse incentive for online publishers to bury the lede (sometimes a full six feet under) in order to pad out “time on page” KPIs. Fortunately, clickbait still hasn’t established itself as the universal modus operandi, as evidenced in more intelligent corners of the Internet occupied by the likes of The Daily Upside.

Instead, you’re greeted with a simple “Good Morning”, about 75 words-worth of the most interesting story of the day, followed by three concise news bullet points which constitute your Morning Brief. In most cases, you could stop reading right there and consider yourself better informed than most folks you’re likely to run into at the water cooler.

But if you are curious to know more, The Daily Upside rewards your casual scrolling with bite-sized followup that hits hard. Unlike many other newsletters, there are no hard-and-fast content buckets (economy, sports, tech, etc.) to narrow the scope of what you might read. However, the format typically runs something like issuecontexttakeaway. This journalistic ethos makes informationally dense stories surprisingly digestible–and lends itself to effective coverage of sundry topical matter.

It’s kind of like Vice hired Tom Brokaw to write TL;DRs, and we’re here for it.

Read our full review of The Daily Upside here.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails

Subscribe to The Daily Upside

2. Morning Brew

The most comprehensive newsletter on our list, Morning Brew seeks to replicate the experience of opening a newspaper (presumably with a cup of the good stuff in hand). This is evident not only in the type and format of the content presented, but in the fact that it hits your inbox in the actual morning–rather than someone else’s time zone!

Your “front page” consists of a Good Morning tidbit, followed by market reports and the day’s most pressing news–complete with subtle tongue-in-cheek to keep your eyes glued to the page. Further down, you’ll find a rotating cast of categories including finance, tech, media, and much more. Each headline gets just enough supporting prose to form a proper value-add, alleviating the guilt of not clicking through to “read more” every step of the way.

And just like a physical newspaper, the Morning Brew is engineered to be read as you please. Maybe you’re not feeling the breaking news, and just need to unwind with a good crossword. Or, spice up your work week with conversation starters, playlist ideas, movie recommendations, or thought experiments in the Brew’s Bets section. Morning Brew reinvigorates a classic media format, and it works better than it ever has.

Read our full review of Morning Brew here.

How and when

  • Free to join, with rewards for sharing
  • Daily emails

Subscribe to Morning Brew

3. 1440

1440 is split up into three distinct sections, clearly labeled by priority: Need to Know, In the Know, and Etcetera. There’s no clickbait, or delaying tactics, to get you to scroll through as many ads as possible; they frontload the good stuff, and leave it up to you whether you’re in the mood for trivia.

While the stories are curated, offering myriad off-ramps to further reading, you can just as profitably stick to 1440’s on-page journalism. Their content model respects your time, facilitating both deep dives and casual skimming in due form. 1440 sets the standard for readability, easily justifying its place in your inbox (rather than the spam folder).

We recommend 1440 to anyone who values policy over politics; who has little time to fact-check the pundits; and who has a genuine desire to learn about and connect with the world around them.

Read our full review of 1440 here.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails

Subscribe to 1440

4. NYT’s The Morning (formerly The Morning Briefing)

Sitting at somewhere north of 17 million subscribers, The Morning is the largest newsletter in the world. You might thus reasonably assume the publication to be monolithic in nature, lacking the personal touch inherent in smaller indies. 

However, in early 2020, The New York Times moved to honor (and accelerate) the benchmark; they brought on David Leonhardt as the newsletter’s “host and anchor”. This broke from a long-running industry norm of foregrounding the editorial positions of the news institution itself, relegating its constituent journalistic voices to supporting roles.

It was hardly a gamble on NYT’s part; Leonhardt’s nimble, cogent reporting is more than a match for today’s rapidly developing news cycles. Each morning’s newsletter delivers ample factual heft in a highly digestible format. The Morning may lack some of the whimsy and fun of smaller newsletters. But it makes up for it in authority and scope–ensuring that you’ll never miss out on the most pertinent stories the world has to offer on a given day. 

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails, with breaks on the weekend

Subscribe to The Morning

5. NextDraft

Reading the headlines–and only the headlines–is a pernicious issue. Many see it as the scourge of the disinformation age; and the info-tainment industry not only capitalizes upon this very human tendency, but perpetuates it as part of their business models. We’re all guilty of it, and you won’t see us casting stones about it.

Instead, we’ll direct your attention to an effective remedy for lazy reading: Dave Pell’s NextDraft newsletter. An astute curator of the most relevant issues, you’ll find his snippets-cum-commentary not only inform you at a glance, but beckon you to take a closer look. Everything is up for discussion, from geopolitics to science to feel-good miscellanea.

NextDraft’s daily digest offers ten points of consideration–notice how we phrased that. A single point might correlate to a single story, but there are plenty of issues which beg further context across several articles. Dave spoon-feeds it all to you, coupling colorful metaphors to direct quotes from linked sources spanning the political divide. It’s like Google’s Snippet algorithm became sentient and decided its mission was to help you, personally, give a damn about the world around you.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails

Subscribe to NextDraft

Best Newsletters for Cultural Impressions

6. The Elevator

The Elevator is the premier newsletter for men, delivering a satisfying blend of eye candy and food-for-thought straight to your inbox on a daily basis. Just like your favorite aftershave, The Elevator smartens up your morning routine. You’ll enjoy a veritable smorgasbord of news, entertainment, history, relationships and sex, life hacks, and cultural artifacts–all meticulously curated to make you a more interesting and rounded individual than you were the day before.

Sure, there’s a healthy amount of the next-day-take to keep you up to date with current events. But The Elevator’s editorial team has a particular knack for digging up timeless gems. It might be a link to the original commercial advertising the DeLorean, a personal account of eating KFC in Vietnam alongside Anthony Bourdain, or a how-to illustrating the process of buying into Gambino family boss John Gotti’s legendary booze collection. Yeah, it’s badass.

Unlike the dude-mags of yore, The Elevator is never regressive or raunchy. Each issue features an absolutely stunning model, but they keep it classy–more aesthetic palate cleanser than lusty centerfold. You (probably) won’t get anyone in trouble forwarding The Elevator during lunch break.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails

Subscribe to The Elevator

7. The GIST

There’s a lot of hubbub surrounding The GIST. Perhaps you’ve heard some of the commotion already: It sounds like yet another glass ceiling being shattered–this one having loomed over the domain of sports coverage for actual centuries. Launched by three college friends from Canada in 2018, The GIST brings long-absent female voices to the fore, offering a refreshing deviation from the traditional male-gaze of sports talk.

But even without the progressive context, The GIST is a damn-fine sports newsletter, crafting compelling narratives with respect to the numbers–just how sports nuts love it. It doesn’t feel like activism; it’s just outstanding athletic journalism with an inclusive bent. 

The GIST leaves no stone unturned, covering everything from the gridiron to powdery slopes to fighting cages. Rather than assuming you’re already plugged into the aforementioned centuries of prior coverage and history, The GIST drops the pretense and presents all the context needed for a fun, meaningful read–no matter your background or experience. Sure, all the raw data is still there; but gone is the dry, exclusive format that has deterred generations of people not in “the know” by default.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Three emails per week

Subscribe to The GIST

8. Brain Pickings

Ostensibly, Maria Popova reviews books for a living. However, Brain Pickings swiftly reveals that it is, in fact, the human condition which is actually under review. But it’s not a bully pulpit of dry psycho-social analysis, smarmy cultural musings, or fiery political punditry; instead Popova curates a holistic, interdisciplinary cornucopia that encourages you to think–and feel–it all out for yourself.

This ethos is reflected in Popova’s preference to remain relatively anonymous, meaning Brain Pickings stands on its own absent any cult of personality. That isn’t to say there’s no personal touch–quite the opposite. Brain Pickings is a window into a curious mind, where empathy and reason intermix to derive meaning and satisfaction from everyday experiences. It’s a mind we all share, though–Popova just shows us how to nurture its potential.

Don’t get us wrong, there isn’t a drop of woo-woo to be found in her critical analyses; nor is it always feel-good in nature. Brain Pickings tackles tough subjects such as death and being, interpersonal as well as abstract relationships, epistemology, burnout, and so much more. Topics may be viewed through the lens of an astrophysicist reading poetry, the imperfect fractal architecture of snowflakes, or experiencing solitude within a crowded city. Many have book reviews attached to them, while others are more open-ended musings. In any case, Brain Pickings speaks unpretentiously to the rational mind and human spirit, stirring you towards a more thoughtful, intentional life.

How and when

  • Free to join, donations encouraged but not required
  • Two distinct newsletters per week on Sundays and Wednesdays

Subscribe to Brain Pickings

9. The Lefsetz Letter

Bob Lefsetz isn’t here to curate content for you; he’s here to share his outspoken opinions on, well, basically everything. Ostensibly, the Lefsetz Letter promises pointed critiques of the popular music industry, and it does certainly deliver this in spades.

However, what keeps readers coming back is the blunt, seemingly stream-of-consciousness contextualization, encompassing a litany of societal facets such as film, politics, science, celebrities, business, and much more besides. Rather than redirecting your interest to various tidbits scattered across the Internet, Lefsetz demands your full attention with a prosaic heft perhaps better understood as a blog post than a newsletter. 

The Lefsetz Letter is decidedly not light elevator reading. But, it’s guaranteed to give you perspectives you hadn’t considered before on a dizzying array of topics. Lefsetz is rightly called a guru of sorts, having worked in entertainment for the better part of 50 years. Having begun life as a print publication back in 1986, the Lefsetz Letter certainly has its street cred intact. Indeed, its conversational, direct-mail style can rant, but it never raves unhinged–remaining tethered down to earth by the gravitas of a consummate music industry insider. 

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails (often more), with occasional breaks on the weekends

Subscribe to The Lefsetz Letter

Best Business, Marketing, and Finance Newsletters

10. The Hustle

Though it’s fair to classify The Hustle as a curatorial publication, its pages are littered with unique insights and hard-hitting journalism. Sure, you can read about the Perseverance landing elsewhere; but it’s The Hustle where you’ll learn about the immediate implications for business back on Earth in depth.

Historically covering what the best and brightest entrepreneurs and startups did right, The Hustle has become its own success story. HubSpot recently acquired the scrappy media company for an undisclosed amount–though, only after founder Sam Parr had turned down countless offers prior on the basis of maintaining integrity and trust with their readership.

Backed by the marketing giant, The Hustle’s core value proposition is going stronger than ever. You’ll get compelling profiles on key figures across a diversity of industries, highlighting how they started and, more importantly, how they scaled. Of course, VC and tech trends get plenty of air time, offering valuable context and actionable analysis for entrepreneurs, startups and growing companies. There’s even room carved out for the digital water cooler, with memes of the day, shower thoughts, and more to tickle your fancy.

Read our full review of The Hustle newsletter here.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails

Subscribe to The Hustle

12. Benedict’s Newsletter

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone more qualified than Benedict Evans to write a weekly newsletter on tech trends. Drawing on decades of experience as an equity research analyst and consultant in Silicon Valley and abroad, Benedict is a one-man retinue of VC insider insight.

The first splash of information in Benedict’s Newsletter links to his latest work analyzing global developments in mobile, media and technology. Benedict’s data-driven approach reeks of professionalism, but he’s careful not to talk over the heads of his rapidly growing general audience. Whether you’re on his level or not, you’ll walk away having a much clearer picture of “what mattered this week”.

Beyond the meat-and-potatoes of his own research, Benedict curates a masterclass in topical musings, neatly arranged in categories: News, Ideas from around the web, Outside interests, and Market data. His holistic brand of contextual analysis makes the endlessly complex implications of world-shaking trends and developments accessible and relevant–a skill precious few tend to share for free en masse. Of course, there is a premium subscription that takes you on even deeper dives, also opening up the entire back catalogue of Benedict’s Newsletter. 

How and when

  • Free to join, with a premium option for more content
  • Weekly emails

Subscribe to Benedict’s Newsletter

11. The Moz Top 10

You don’t need to be a digital marketer yourself to appreciate what the The Moz Top 10 has to offer. In fact, if your business is in any way touched by the Internet (and we’re betting it is), you’d do well to work this semi-monthly digest from the thought leaders on SEO into your newsletter diet. Even if you don’t fall into either of these camps, reading what the pros read will give you valuable insight into how to best use the cornerstone technology of the information age to your advantage.

Each issue offers ten blurbs linking to articles jam-packed with actionable marketing insights. You’ll learn to optimize existing practices, take new ones on board, and get a heads up on any sweeping changes incoming which could make or break your SEO. There’s even a “Local 3-Pack” to help SMBs better serve and connect with local markets.

Moz, what have we done to deserve you?

How and when

  • Free to join
  • One email every two weeks

Subscribe to The Moz Top 10

Best Newsletters for Travel

13. Jack’s Flight Club

Okay, we’re not ignorant to the fact that a recommendation for a newsletter netting you incredible deals on flights may not seem exactly timely in the midst of a pandemic. But if you, like so many others, have been grounded for the better part of a year, it’s a fair bet that your wanderlust has been, well, lusting for a getaway. And when life does inevitably return to normal, Jack’s Flight Club has you covered.

Unlike the majority of newsletters which promise to deliver content on a fairly strict schedule, Jack’s Flight Club sends you personalized flight recommendations as they come up–usually once or twice a week. You’ll need to supply some general information about which major airport or city you’re nearest. But you can look forward to some jaw-dropping prices in exchange for this scant personal data.

How does a getaway from Philly to Iceland round-trip under 300 bucks sound? Or if you’re looking for warmer climates, try shredding some waves down in Costa Rica, departing from New York for around the same cost as a Broadway show. It’s all possible with Jack’s Flight Club. Not every flight you’ll get in your inbox is last-minute pricing, but it will help if you have some room in your schedule for flexible travel dates to get the most out of this newsletter.

How and when

  • Free to join, with a premium option for more deals
  • Usually sends out one or two emails a week

Subscribe to Jack’s Flight Club

14. Atlas Obscura

Even if you’re stuck at home, you can still dream big about exploring the most fascinating places on Earth. Think of Atlas Obscura as your virtual tour guide, intriguing you with sights, sounds, and flavors both on and off the beaten path. Depending on what you’re looking for, you might sign up for any of up to five different newsletters: Daily, Weekly, Gastro Obscura, Unusual Trips, and perhaps most relevantly today, Online Experiences.

While you can indeed expect Atlas Obscura to spotlight some choice locales and landmarks, you’re just as likely to dive headfirst into the esoteric. What can that conch you picked up on the beach teach you about the region? Are napkins facing an existential threat by paper towels?

Where can you find a solid repository of West Africa’s food heritage? These are just a few of the questions with answers sitting in your inbox.

If you’ve never read anything by Atlas Obscura, think of it as a more arcane NatGeo that speaks more directly to explorers, tourists, and jet-setters. Consider this gem of a headline: “To Help a Rare Brazilian Parrot, Start with a Crossbow and Rappelling Beekeepers”. Far from clickbait, Atlas Obscura always delivers that rare bit of trivia or glimpse into another world that makes it a worthwhile addition to your daily read. 

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily, weekly, and specialty newsletters available

Subscribe to Atlas Obscura

Best Environmental Newsletters

15. The Climate Crisis (via The New Yorker)

Look, we get it. Going out of your way to read about climate change is practically an exercise in doom-scrolling. It can feel like the problems at hand are so monumental, it’s impossible for you to connect on a personal level. This is precisely what 350.org founder and author of the 1989 eye-opener The End of Nature, Bill McKibben sets out to address in his weekly newsletter for The New Yorker.

Appropriately titled The Climate Crisis, at the time of writing a selection of McKibben’s recent headlines includes “Can Green Energy Power the Cannabis Boom?”, “The Enormous Risk of Atmospheric Hacking”, and “Our Stuff Weighs More than All Living Things on the Planet”. Clearly, this is a newsletter which isn’t afraid to swing for the bleachers in terms of scope. Yet, it hits intimately close to home, relating the health of the world to our most topical fixations.

McKibben is no armchair critic, either. His expertise, voice, and network have lent the international fossil fuel divestment movement (known as the Fossil Free campaign) sufficient momentum to claim over $15 TRILLION in divestment commitments. He is living proof that solutions are not only attainable, but entirely in our hands.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Weekly emails each Thursday

Subscribe to The Climate Crisis

16. Citizen’s Climate Lobby

Dovetailing with our previous recommendation, Citizen’s Climate Lobby provides the average Joe with an on-ramp to taking direct political action on climate change. Their newsletter illustrates how lobbying works; how it doesn’t require enormous personal wealth (despite what the donor class would have you believe); and how to adopt the tactics and language that work to sway policy makers.

A driving focus of CCL is the economic impact of climate change, with conservative estimates putting the cost somewhere around 10% of global GDP, starting now and unfolding over the next 50 years. You’ll become something of an expert on the carbon tax, and learn how you can join others in cultivating political will for a stable, healthy environment.

CCL’s weekly briefing newsletter highlights action being taken around the world, and provides informational links to learn more. You can even sign up for free training to become a climate lobbyist yourself. Short of building a Fortune 500 company and dumping billions of dollars into pet projects, joining Citizen’s Climate Lobby is one of the most singularly effective things you can do to make a positive impact on our collective future. Did we mention Bill McKibben has given his stamp of approval to CCL?

How and when

  • Free to join, with options for a weekly newsletter and a daily digest
  • Various

Subscribe to Citizen’s Climate Lobby

Best Newsletters for Self-Improvement

17. The Penny Hoarder

One of the greatest failings of most school curricula is the lack of education on personal finance. The Penny Hoarder steps in to fulfill this need, and it does so with aplomb. Their daily newsletter is but a facet of their larger platform, but it is well-worth your time and inbox-space.

The reason they’re successful (and we do mean successful–The Penny Hoarder was acquired by Sykes for north of $100 million shortly before Christmas 2020) is their plain-language approach to breaking down common financial problems that frankly scare the hell out of most of us to look squarely in the eye. The newsletter eschews jargon in favor of real-world examples illustrating what and what not to do with your hard-earned.

Whether it’s simple budgeting tips; managing the complex financial logistics of life events, like buying a home or divorce; or making smarter investments to bolster your portfolio; there’s always a useful nugget of golden wisdom to extract. The Penny Hoarder never promises get-rich-quick fixes, but you wouldn’t want them to. Their newsletter is geared for helping the average person get a leg up on the long-term, more than justifying the brief time you spend reading it each day. 

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails

Subscribe to The Penny Hoarder

18. NPR’s Life Kit

What do applying for student loans, falling in love, imposter syndrome, vaccine hesitancy, and chocolate all have in common? They all fall under the eclectic purview of NPR’s Life Kit. Okay technically, Life Kit is more of a podcast, but the newsletter feeds directly into it–and acts as a suitable substitute for anyone who doesn’t have 20 minutes of free ear-time to spare.

Life Kit is geared for personal growth, but it’s more pragmatic and less rah-rah than more mindset-oriented publications. There’s a rotating cast of journalists conducting interviews with experts in a true diversity of fields, so you’ll never lack for variety. But true to form for NPR, the sheen of editorial quality on every piece of content that lands in your inbox is undeniable.

Topically and tonally, Life Kit is aimed primarily at millennials and zoomers. However, anyone in search of the tools necessary to craft a more fulfilling, kinder life will find plenty to hang onto.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails, with breaks on the weekend

Subscribe to NPR’s Life Kit

Best General Interest Newsletters

19. theSkimm

While theSkimm has a definite target audience in mind–millennial women–its universal appeal has seen subscriptions skyrocket to well over 7 million since its 2012 launch. So what are they doing right? Well, an awful lot.

Theirs is an inclusive philosophy, covering the headlines with an eye for justice and using accessible language that makes no assumptions about their readers’ experience. Moreover, attractive visual design and concise text blocking prove theSkimm’s flagship newsletter the Daily Skimm to be aptly named–lending itself to easy digestion by busy 20- and 30-somethings during brief interludes in the daily hustle. 

theSkimm offers a masterclass in conversational journalism, blending wit with fact absent the burden of pretense. The publication’s legion of adherents sings its praises for providing much-needed clarity in a maelstrom of sensationalism and disinformation, while maintaining a human touch and sense of humor. It’s a difficult act to balance, but theSkimm sticks the landing all across the impressive diversity of their coverage.

Read our full review of the Daily Skimm here.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails

Subscribe to theSkimm

20. Now I Know

A staff favorite, Now I Know fills you in on everything you never knew you needed to know. While the topics are usually rather esoteric, they’re never unconsidered; Dan Lewis makes a salient point to make the random relevant, elevating “mere” trivia to stand alongside breaking news in an effort to make you a more informed, better rounded individual.

Ever wonder why some coins have ridges, and others don’t? Discover the smelly history of that little hole in the top-left of the Farmer’s Almanac. And marvel at Vladimir Lenin’s corpse, which appears to get younger and younger as the years go by. It’s all par for the course with Now I Know.

Lewis also occasionally shares his own “now I know” moments, sourcing articles and testimonials that have helped him build a working understanding of current events. It’s this kind of stuff that reminds us that we can still consume content from humans, rather than algorithms. And as a further courtesy, each Friday edition of Now I Know recaps the week’s stories, in case you prefer to catch up over the weekend.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Daily emails, with breaks on the weekend

Subscribe to Know I Know

21. Below the Fold

While other newsletters largely gravitate to the biggest headlines, Below the Fold takes the path less traveled as a matter of course. They figure you’ll hear about Kim and Kanye without much effort on your own. Instead, Below the Fold meditates on the biology of daytime napping; reveals how French fashion labels are making land grabs in a Tampa Bay neighborhood; and criticizes the terrible financial advice floating around TikTok.

Of course, Below the Fold doesn’t go in for vain eclecticism–its fare often bests the value-adds of louder headlines. What’s more, there’s solid minute-journalism on these pages; well-sourced and replete with recommended reading. Most newsletters seek to replicate the experience of skimming the front page, Below the Fold reminds us there’s a whole newspaper worth reading behind it.

As of late February 2021, Below the Fold is celebrating their 100th edition and an ever-expanding audience. We appreciate their minimalist use of ads, adorable ASCII art, local news spotlights–not to mention their seriously major-league staff talent and credentials bringing it all together.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Two emails a week, on Mondays and Fridays

Subscribe to Below the Fold

22. TheCoolist

Hey–there’s room for a little self-promotion on this list! TheCoolist’s nascent newsletter has more of the same great content that brought you to the site in the first place. 

We’re passionate lifestyle advocates with a broad taste for art, science, sports, gadgets, aesthetics, DIY, and social causes. Our focus is evergreen without neglecting the topical. You’ll never see something in your inbox which we wouldn’t tolerate in our own.

Sign up for TheCoolist’s newsletter here. And as always, give us a shout if you’ve got something to say about our content. Feel free to leave suggestions, roast us with criticism, or drop in to shoot the breeze. We’re listening.

How and when

  • Free to join
  • Periodic emails

Share Your Own Recommendations

There truly is a newsletter for any interest, and even a top-22 list can only scratch the surface of what’s out there.

What newsletters would you add to our chosen categories, and which categories did we leave out?

Can you personally vouch for our recommended newsletters?

Reach out to us in a comment below–we’ll be happy to take your feedback on board for future articles and updates.

12 comments
  1. I love the Twipe Digital Publishing newsletter and their solution for personalized newsletters and reading lists: JAMES – Your Digital Butler

  2. Excellent recommendations! Includes some of my favorites. Would also like to to suggest Politico Playbook’s morning newsletter for all things politics and The Media Today from the Columbia Journalism Review for an in depth look at all things media/journalism related

  3. I would recommend you to add the newsletter- Bonding over Bond. Bonding Over Bond is a quarterly newsletter published by the Fans of Ruskin Bond Facebook community. The Facebook community has 32K+ followers hailing from 46 countries. Bonding over Bond is the ONLY newsletter in India made exclusively for the fans of Ruskin Bond.