Countdown
2 Weeks Left To Register For Sessions
Happy Friday, Newsletter Festers!
Today, Curated founder Dave Verwer sent his 500th issue of iOS Dev Weekly. Newsletter Fest is a celebration of the amazing work he’s done with both the newsletter and the tool he built to support it. Congratulations to Dave. We’re excited to honor him at our Kickoff Session on April 12, which is coming FAST.
Have you registered for all the Newsletter Fest sessions you’re interested in attending? We’ve coached speakers to leave plenty of time for live Q&As, so be sure to come with questions.
Remember that you can visit the event page (built on Notion, in case you’re curious) to browse sessions and that YOU NEED TO REGISTER FOR EACH ONE you want to attend. Everything’s free.
Note: Replays will be posted in the weeks following the event.
Don’t Forget To Enter To Win A Year Of Curated
The Curated account contest is underway and waiting for your entry. This is a great way to test out how Curated helps users collect links, curate content, draft commentary, send, and publish a searchable web archive of their newsletters (this newsletter was quickly built using Curated).
Entering this contest is 100% free and requires no payment information.
The three entries with the most votes will win 12 months of Curated. The three runner-ups will win 30% off a year of Curated. See the Official Rules for more details. This contest ends April 15 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
To enter
- Create a Curated account (if you don’t have one already)
- Follow along with Seth’s tutorial videos to build out your publication and an issue
- Take a full-page screen capture of your newsletter
- Fill out the form on this page and share with your audience to vote
To vote
- Click Vote in the header of the form on this page
- Vote for your favorite
Note: to view high-quality screenshots of submitted newsletters, scroll to the bottom of this entry page.
Voting For 2021’s Top Newsletters Opens Next Week!
Thanks for all the nominations for 2021’s Top Newsletters, y’all. Voting for nominated newsletters starts on Monday, March 29th.
Voting will last until April 15th and the winners will be announced on Friday, April 16th, the last day of Newsletter Fest. We’re designing some cool digital badges for the winners.
Speaker Spotlight
Eric Barnes, The Daily Memphian: How We Used Email to Break Through 15,500 Paid Subscribers to Our Local News Site
Eric Barnes is Publisher & CEO of The Daily Memphian, an online daily news source in Memphis that launched in September 2018. Additionally, for more than 10 years, he’s hosted a weekly news interview show, Behind the Headlines on WKNO, the local PBS station in Memphis. He also hosts a weekly radio show and podcast focused on arts and culture that is broadcast on WYXR in Memphis. Barnes is also a part-owner of a group of community newspapers in Tennessee, as well as the author of four novels, including The City Where We Once Lived. Years ago, he drove a forklift in Tacoma, Washington, and Kenai, Alaska, worked construction on Puget Sound, and froze fish in a warehouse outside Anchorage.
Workshop: The Daily Memphian: How We Used Email to Break Through 15,500 Paid Subscribers to Our Local News Site
Wednesday, April 14th. 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (EDT)
Email newsletters are the single best driver of paid subscriptions to The Daily Memphian, far outpacing SEO, social or other channels. Learn how The Daily Memphian has used email to break through 15,500 paid subscribers to their local news site – subscribers who pay a high net rate and cancel their subscriptions at an industry low pace.
Register for this event here.
Sonal Mandalia, How to Position Your Newsletter to Land Lucrative Sponsorships
Sonal heads up advertiser partnerships at Paved. She works with Uber, Salesforce, Noom, eBay, Jamf, Square, Warby Parker and more! She’s an expert in building relationships with Marketing Managers and Execs, guiding them through the newsletter advertising space. She recognizes the importance of finding the right audience and, therefore, newsletters that will translate into ongoing success for both the advertiser and publisher.
Workshop: How to Position Your Newsletter to Land Lucrative Sponsorships
Friday, April 16th. 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EDT)
Newsletters provide advertisers with the opportunity to get in front of a highly engaged audience that has opted to receive content straight to their inbox. Sonal will walk us through what advertisers at large companies are looking for when sponsoring a newsletter and how to position your newsletter to better attract them.
Register for this event here.
Scott Rogerson, The Power of Curated Newsletters
Scott is Chief Executive Officer at UpContent, a content curation platform leveraged by marketing, sales, and communications teams to surface and triage trustworthy articles to measurably increase engagement - without the manual, ad hoc, and duplicative efforts faced by many organizations. Prior to founding UpContent, Scott ran a Pittsburgh marketing agency, spent some time in private equity, and spent over five years in consulting.
Workshop: The Power of Curated Newsletters
Tuesday, April 13. 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EDT)
Think you need to write every piece of content you share with an audience? Think again. Curating content your audience will love can free up time and help you serve an audience by connecting them with truly helpful content (in addition to your own). Learn how it works!
Register for this event here.
The Lineup
Monday, April 12
11 - 11:45 a.m. (EDT):
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EDT):
Marketing’s Big Opportunity is the Publishing Model, April Mullen
2 p.m. - 3 p.m. (EDT)
Intermission: How Arts & Culture Venues Are Using Email To Stay Alive, Kirk Bentley
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EDT):
4 Newsletter Business Models, Dan Oshinsky
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EDT):
Tuesday, April 13
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EDT):
Why Is No One Reading My Newsletter?, Margo Aaron
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EDT):
How to Predictably Generate Newsletter Subscribers with a Lead Magnet, Russ Henneberry from theCLIKK
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EDT):
The Power of a Curated Newsletter, Scott Rogerson
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EDT):
Strategizing Content: How to Build & Test Topics in Curated, Curated Team
Wednesday, April 14
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EDT):
Selling Newsletter Sponsorships, Ryan Sager
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EDT):
Copy Is Everything: How to Write a Newsletter That Engages Subscribers from Start to Finish, Liz Willits
2 p.m. - 3 p.m. (EDT):
The Daily Memphian: How We Used Email to Break Through 15,500 Paid Subscribers to Our Local News Site, Eric Barnes
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EDT):
The New Paper: How we built a $1M business in 24 months, Michael Aft
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EDT):
The Agency Model: How to Set Up and Sell Newsletters as a Service, Curated Team
Thursday, April 15
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EDT):
Leveraging Newsletters for Customer Success, Growth, and Advocacy, Megan Bowen
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EDT):
3 Key Steps to Landing More Emails in the Inbox, Brian Minick
2 p.m. - 3 p.m. (EDT):
Paid, Sponsorships, or Both? What to Consider as You Decide How to Monetize, Jake Schonberger
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EDT):
How to Manage Your Newsletter Like a Product, Anum Hussain
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EDT):
Advanced Link Collecting: How to Curate Like a Pro, Curated Team
Friday, April 16
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. (EDT):
How to Position Your Newsletter to Land Lucrative Sponsorships, Sonal Mandalia, Paved
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. (EDT):
Blurred Lines: What Marketers and Journalists can Learn from Each Other When it Comes to Serving Readers and Growing Loyal Audiences, Hosted by Mary Ellen Slayter featuring Trello's Newsletter Team, Ryan Johnston (Co-founder and CEO) of 6AM City, Jenny Rothenberg of BACH (former Director of Marketing at Morning Brew), Sarah Ebner (future head of newsletters at the Financial Times in London, previously at The Telegraph) and others.
3 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EDT):
How To Launch Classified Ads In Your Newsletter (And Sell Them Out Every Week), Josh Spector
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. (EDT):
Closing Ceremony, Newsletter Awards, + Curated account winners announced! (Registration coming soon)
Spread the Word
Sharing Is Caring
We would be really grateful if you’d help us out by sharing this COMPLETELY FREE event. You can forward this newsletter or share these media assets.
You’ll find different sizes of the promotional videos so you can choose the best ones to share on your social media accounts. Plus, there’s space for you to add your own wording on the video when you post (if you like that sort of thing).