I'm a bit embarrassed to say I didn't appreciate the huge impact Odetta had on inspiring the creation of the first Newport Folk Festival. Luckily, I got to dig into this piece of history for the first Folktales newsletter.
Folktales is all about pulling interesting stories from Newport Folk's rich history and deep archive of images, video and ephemera, and sharing it all with the huge folk fanbase (you can see the newsletter here and read the post/subscribe here). It's going to be good.
I’m a big fan of newsletters right now and I’m going to use this occasion to digress about them.
I think of newsletters sort of like how we used to think about homepages for brands or organizations. They are the front doors/front pages of your brand. They convey a lot about what is important to your organization and they do a lot of heavy lifting for you.
Even though we’re very much in a big moment for newsletters, with the rise of Substack and general awareness that newsletters are important, so many (even from media outlets) are terribly executed. Why? A lack of resources for one. But also, a lot of prioritization. If you’re using some kind of product or tool that automatically populates a newsletter with content, you’re doing it wrong.
Putting together a good newsletter takes a few people on a team. Designers, writers, editors, producers, etc. to actually build it. They all have to influence the process.
It’s also critical to have an angle. The INSERT-BRAND-NAME-HERE newsletter is not compelling. Try to think like a journalist and figure out how they would package a new niche newsletter with a distinct POV that appeals to a certain audience. See The New York Times’s Amplifier or GQ’s Box and Papers. These are sub-brands of what we used to call “sections” of a media outlet. If you can’t flex this muscle to develop and frame an editorial property like this, just hire a journalist to do it for you. They’re around and need work.
Then you have to regularly publish the newsletter (something I struggle with in this newsletter!) for months and years for your list to grow.
Why do all this? You’ll own a big list of contacts that you can message for free at any time. You don’t have to pay anything to promote a post, you can drive SEO for your site, build brand awareness, drive sales, etc. It takes longer, but it’s better than building a community on a social platform, where the platform sees the upside of that community, not your organization.
So go forth. Start building that newsletter.
Reading
How Sam Youkilis Captures the World with Five iPhones (Interview)
Sphere and Loathing in Las Vegas. (The Atlantic)
He Won’t Stop Taking Pictures Until He’s Partying on the Other Side
At 85, Henry Diltz is one of the last great rock photographers still living (and working). His new book is a document of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the ’60s and his own history. (The New York Times)
Is Threads winning the war with X? (CJR)
Elon Musk's X restructuring curtails disinformation research, spurs legal fears. (Reuters)
Watching
It’s good to have opinions.
Listening
Build for Better - Tom Goodwin on Rethinking (Build Better)
And this.
Content Coverage Submissions
Worked on an interesting project? Seen a good video or have a photo project to suggest? Share your favorite pieces of content here and I’ll include the best in this newsletter.