Credits: Unsplash
Are you feeling swamped by the news? No idea what news matters? Tired of misleading articles? Email newsletters, in my opinion, are one of the easiest ways you can get your news. They’re easily digestible, and they arrive on a schedule so you aren’t swamped with articles to read. Usually, they’re free! I’ve subscribed to several over the years; here’s a list of my favorites.
The New York Times Morning Briefing
Credits: The New York Times
This newsletter is phenomenal, and there’s a good reason why it was required reading for Honors Journalism students at my school. Curated by reporters at The New York Times, it orders the news from most to least important and relevant. A weekend edition is sent out every Sunday that recaps the biggest stories of the week, and they’re currently running an evening “impeachment briefing” that updates on impeachment proceedings against President Trump. Subscribe here.
TheSkimm
Credits: theSkimm
Ever wanted your news told to you by millennial women? Subscribe to theSkimm. I find it has more international news than the Morning Briefing does, and it maintains a fairly nonpartisan reporting style with links to both liberal and conservative news sources. The writing style is very concise and informal, and it occasionally includes some witty humor. They also have a program called Skimm’bassadors, where you can get free Skimm merchandise if you refer enough people. Subscribe here. (This is my Skimm’bassadors link, by the way! I really want a free t-shirt.)
Tangle
Credits: Tangle
This is almost definitely the most obscure of the newsletters in this listicle. Tangle is a very recently-started newsletter written by Isaac Saul, a freelance journalist; it takes a couple of news stories of the day and analyzes both the liberal and conservative viewpoints of recent news events, complete with embedded tweets and links to articles you can read. Reply to the email with a question, and it might even get answered in a future newsletter. Subscribe here.
The Borowitz Report
Credits: The New Yorker
This newsletter is from The New Yorker‘s satire reporter, Andy Borowitz, and it’s a welcome break from the somber tones of other news. Every edition has a few stories satirizing the day’s news, featuring articles like “Putin Saddened That Trump Asked Other Foreign Country to Meddle in Election.” Plus, there are links to actual news at the bottom of the newsletter. Subscribe here.
The Optimist
Credits: The Washington Post
Last, but not least, is a newsletter from The Washington Post. The news is pretty sad sometimes. Reading the news doesn’t have to be so upsetting all the time! Try The Optimist for a weekly roundup of all the good news there is. It sends every Sunday with articles about medical advances and Good Samaritans. Subscribe here.
I love that you mentioned the NYT briefings because I find them very useful to get a snapshot of current news. However, (& I think you might agree with me on this one,) they should increase the article limits, no?
The paywall is there for a good reason: journalism is suffering from a chronic lack of funding now that so much news can be found online. Print subscriptions keep going down more and more, after all.
If you’re looking for a way to read more articles, you can find most NYTimes articles for free on Apple News (I’d assume Apple pays them to keep the articles free), or you can make a free account on the NYTimes website to increase your article limit to 10 instead of 1. On Safari and Firefox, you can also enable reader mode to read more articles than your limit. Also, college students can subscribe to the NYTimes for a really low fee, so once you’re in college, consider paying the $1 a week to read unlimited articles.
Thanks a lot Ann. Helped a lot!
I thought this was a really interesting article. I have been looking for more sources to read to find out about the news, and I was looking a lot for unbiased sources. I think your article gives a great summary of the journals and what to expect when reading them. I do not currently subscribe to any newsletters. After reading your blog, I really think it might be a good idea to subscribe to one so that I can keep up with current events. I think that TheSkimm sounds really interesting. I like the idea of seeing sources across all parts of the political spectrum, and I like the idea of hearing international news. I also really liked the idea of Tangle because it analyzes news stories from the viewpoints of both liberals and conservatives. I think it’s important to be able to see multiple sides of an issue, and I like how the newsletter delves into that.
Tangle and theSkimm are both really nice! Tangle delivers in the middle of the day, which is one of my favorite parts about it; theSkimm and the Morning Briefing deliver early in the morning, and I always end up reading them in a half-awake, dazed state, and being able to read an in-depth analysis of the news in the middle of the day when I can actually take in all the information is much nicer.
I really enjoyed your article and I love the format that allowed for a seamless incorporation of links and visuals. This really takes me back to Honors Journalism and those news quizzes, and reminds me that I should probably get back to reading all of the briefings sitting in my mailbox. The Skimm is my favorite because of the tone and the wide range of coverage, although perhaps I should look at The Borowitz Report in order to get my much needed dosage of satire. I am subscribed to the Chicago Tribunes newsletter, which is not listed on here but provides a good sampling of local Chicago area news. I almost wish that there was a newsletter for Naperville news (perhaps there is and I just haven’t looked hard enough) in order to get more information about the immediate local area. If you had to pick one (I know it’s hard) which source would you say is your favorite?
Right now, my favorite is Tangle! I like how it goes in-depth on only a couple of stories per day instead of dumping a ton of information on you all at once; it’s a lot less overwhelming.