RIP Email Again

Dan Oshinsky is back with his monthly look at email newsletters, Not a Newsletter, a terrific resource if you’re not already subscribed. This month, he writes about how he’s expecting another round of articles proclaiming the death of email. This is his second time around. I think I’ve experienced this 3 or 4 times now.

The first was probably after the dot com bubble, which gave rise to a new wave of newsletters in 2000. The second was the blockbuster acquisition of the Daily Candy newsletter (one of those newsletters started in 2000 and VC-funded by 2003) for $125 million in 2008. Daily Candy was shuttered by Comcast in 2014 during another round of “the death of email.”

Now, it’ll be the same story. Only the names have changed.

Much like investing for the long term financially, investing in your audience with email will face dips from time to time. But, the dips are usually (always so far) followed by the greatest gains.

In other words, hang in there. Email newsletters have been resurrected from death many times, and each time they come back stronger and more valuable.

Also, subscribe to Dan’s Not a Newsletter. I was lucky enough to talk to Dan about all this a few months ago in a video chat and I think he has a lot in the works to be excited about.