Pulse check on Pulse of the Polis: Help shape where it's going!
I want to hear from you on what you want out of the newsletter
Hi all—happy Wednesday!
Taking the week off gave me a bit of time to reflect on the newsletter. I want to make this something that everyone can get the most out of. But, if you couldn’t guess, I’m an evidence guy. I don’t want to just go off of what I think would be best/most useful to y’all, I’d rather just ask what that is and tailor the newsletter from there!
Currently, the idea is I’ll review 3-6 projects, each gets a review of the findings + my take on it. (Plus I toss in a few nuggets at the end). I do that once per week. However, I come across way more than just 3-6 interesting projects per week! But I can’t just write about them all; the newsletter would get too long and I can’t commit that much time to giving each the in-depth treatment that I currently give everything.
So there are a few variables that I’m mulling: Frequency, length, and depth. My general thoughts are:
Cover substantially more projects per week (10-15), but with more of the depth as you see with the nuggets.
Do 9-12 projects per week, 7-9 shorter nuggets, 2-3 longer looks ones.
Cover slightly more projects per week (6-9), but by shortening what gets written. A 3-6 sentence paragraph max, blending mix of review + take.
Keep at the same number and at the same depth.
I could also see this as either continuing as a once-weekly newsletter or I could split them and go to 1-3 releases per week (covering 3-5 in the first option, 2-4, in the second, covering 2-3 per issue in the third, and covering 1-2 in the fourth).
Another thing that I’m also considering is doing options 1-3, twice weekly pushes, but a third bonus push that covers 3 projects at the current level of depth. If I went with options 1 & 2, the first in-depth review would be free, the other 2 would be for people paying, like $1-2 per month. (Basically, paying for the coffee necessary to produce the newsletter…). If I went with option 3, all of the longer ones would be paywalled. (Some would be special + free depending on the topic).
I’ve got a few poll questions to get your thoughts! But you can also leave a comment if you have a different proposal.
Thanks for your support of the newsletter so far. Stay safe out there, enjoy the rest of your week.