Tool for journalists: Opt In, for newsletter optimisation

Editor's note: Opt In was developed during Crosscut Public Media's RJI Fellowship. Tamara Power-Drutis, former executive director at Crosscut, was the project leader. Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz, a recent graduate of the University of Washington, was also part of the fellowship project as the editorial assistant at Crosscut.

Newsletters can be a useful tool for newsrooms looking to grow reader loyalty, find out what content matters to their audience, and even generate revenue from external partners.

But managing these can be a challenge for newsrooms that are lacking time or resources, and trying to maintain them and their subscriber base can lead to publishers falling into the trap of pushing out unfocused, ineffective newsletter programmes.

However, a new tool from Crosscut Public Media, in partnership with the Reynolds Journalism Institute, called Opt In has been developed to help publishers and freelance journalists begin to build an e-newsletter strategy, or create a plan to improve upon their existing one.