Welcome to Wednesday’s Digital newsletter, where we’re about to get meta.
Newsletters are an intimate point of connection that media companies and individuals have been stoking for a few years. Substack’s ascent has lit hopes of more diverse voices and more diverse monetization models. New companies and personal brands are being built. Organizations are hiring and firing because of them. There’s a lot riding on newsletters.
No surprise that entrepreneurial types are taking notice. Listory, a new app from content recommendation company Outbrain, aims to organize inboxes. My colleague Sara Jerde reports on the app, which currently monitors 1,000 newsletters across topic areas that include engineering, design and venture capital. For now, it has a free, ad-supported version and a premium, ad-free option at $5 per month.
As we know, publishers have a long ‘it’s complicated’ relationship with content rec companies, who are trying to prove their value by launching more publisher-focused tools.
For publishers, Listory is a small lift but it's too soon to see what the returns are. The highest hurdle is that with an app, users have to proactively seek it out. Inboxes are always open.
Either way, I’m intrigued. Let me know your thoughts at Lucinda.southern@adweek.com.
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Thanks for reading,
Lucinda.
