Every time one of my youngest’s teachers uploads a vertical video to the school virtual learning environment, I wonder how @MarcSettle would react.
(I’m also veeeeery close to lending them one of my mics…)
@iroughol Interesting question: which would you say was your bigger challenge right now: growing your subscriber base, or converting them to paid subs?
@MartinSFP I endorse this newsletter. 😉
@charlotteahenry Well, there is a category of “not long, but one I want to spend time with”, which includes you and @amayfield, amongst others…)
@charlotteahenry Talking of which - I need to read yours! Sorry for the delay: home-schooling and marking have consumed all my time.
This really should have been a blog post, shouldn’t it?
But lurking in the background of all of this is one question: do all these newsletters really need to be this long? Are you really focused on reader value — or are you being self-indulgent?
But, in the case of the more long, discursive emails, I increasing kinda wish they were, well, blogs that I can consume in my RSS reader. As the newsletter boom grows, the same problems that arose with blogs will hit, and this, I think, is one of them.
This is where, in the medium term, things that @SubstackInc’s own reader and apps like @stoopinbox have value. They’re a good place to go when you’re in “reading” mode, rather than “doing” mode.
When I’m in my in-box, I’m in task-focused mode. Long, interesting emails are a distraction from that. That’s why some newsletters get consumed quickly every day — @mediavoicespod’s one and @MartinSFP’s Big Revolution, for instance — others get booted into a “to read” folder.
While I am a big fan of newsletters, they do have one downside in the way I use my email. My in-box tends to be as much a “to-do” list as anything else for me. Yes, I’m aware this isn’t great practice, but it’s the way I am. 🤷🏼♂️ But that creates a problem. Thread!
@jess_denham (I vaguely remember those “pub” things you mention. They were quite fun. But there was this odd scotch egg thing…)
@jess_denham 1: the ability to learn and keep learning all their life — and enjoy it 2: a belief in their own resilience to get through hard times 3. a love of nature, because we’re going to need a generation who cares about that to correct the errors of the past
Note to self: if I ever launch a “morning” newsletter or a “lunchtime” newsletter, make sure I can actually hit those deadlines.
(Sub-tweeting a ‘lunchtime’ email that arrived at nearly 4pm yesterday…)
Team Tinworth lockdown work and homeschooling station for the day. t.co/uXl3O8IDb… 
Lovely chap. :-) twitter.com/InsideNewsroom…
@DanielLevitt32 @JoannaG Daniel, as my students will tell you, I work very hard to help them get jobs. I do kinda feel that maybe I touched a nerve there…
@DanielLevitt32 @JoannaG Nice. 👌
@thirstforwine It does. Looking at that now…
@JoannaG Not exactly. But @JosephStash, @MattieTK and I have been watching his attention/growth hacking with some amusement.
@JoannaG Oh, it’s the growth-hacking newsletter guy at it again, is it? The one who has been using Follow/DM for permission to add you to the newsletter/Unfollow/Repeat to pump his numbers. He’s just hacking attention.
Planetary, a decentralised social network, officially launched yesterday.
I’ve been on the beta. It’s interesting - but really needs the network effect to kick in. mailchi.mp/9d453992186b/p…
I would read this. t.co/xJAMuPu5m… 
Well, I suppose it counts as snow. t.co/I6z4F4utm… 
When you head towards the beach, it’s easy to forget that Shoreham is still very much a working harbour. But a walk up the riverside quickly reminds you that it is. Yesterday, we saw one of the fishing boats bringing in a catch. t.co/OwH6qicb0… 