Queen dof the Internet in the 2000s, the newsletter has all known : a meteoric rise, then a dizzying fall dizzying fall. But now she's making her back in grace...
Every day, the French exchange 1.4 billion e-mails. Among this digital literature is a singular category: newsletters. These digital mails were born of the global Internet, and in the early 2000s became the preferred self-promotion channel for brands and companies, before falling into disuse.The emergence of social networks marked the end of the first generation of newsletters. But now, after several years in the wilderness, old-fashioned emailing is making a comeback thanks to new formats. In contrast to the algorithm-driven world of social networking, the newsletter establishes a direct - almost intimate - link between reader and sender. This format is also perfectly suited to smartphone reading.
A comeback supported by by the press
However, two ingredients are necessary for a successful 2.0 newsletter. First, a clear editorial line, responding to a precise need for information. Secondly, an "incarnation", or at least a perceptible affinity between reader and editor. The major press titles are quick to embrace this dynamic. In 2018, Libération launched Chez Pol, a newsletter dedicated to political news. This newsletter presents concrete information that reveals the inner workings of power. Chez Pol revolves around its counterparts, the now-famous Contexte briefings and Politico Playbooks. Delivering precise, real-time and sometimes confidential information, these newsletters have been able to meet a demand, while carrying a singular editorial line. In the space of just a few years, they have become a benchmark for information, a real daily appointment awaited by readers in their inboxes.
Newsletters as media
New media have even launched themselves through this channel. This was the challenge taken up in 2014 by Laurent Mauriac, founder of Brief.me, a weekly newsletter offering an editorialized seven-minute overview of current events. In ten years, this project has attracted over 15,000 subscribers.
Journalists are also finding in this format a way to create and inform an audience, without relying on an established media. In 2019, Hubert Vialatte, a freelance journalist and Montpellier correspondent for Les Echos, created the Les Indiscrétions newsletter, which reports weekly on business news from Occitanie. More than 5,000 decision-makers receive this newsletter, which is now attracting advertisers and is structured around a team. The neswletter is no longer old-fashioned, it's becoming inspiring...
Hugo Bednarski and Luca Pozzo
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Newsletters for qualified audiences
Albigensian Nathanaël Suaud founded his newsletter In:Tarn in 2023. Every month since then, he has kept his 150 readers up to date on political life in the Tarn. From information gleaned from the department's municipal councils to the activities of Tarn's parliamentarians, In:Tarn puts the spotlight on local public life.