Penny Wiseacre

Things I have learned in a month of writing So What, Who Cares?

As I've alluded to before, email newsletters are my day job. I believe in email as an editorial format*. There are ways to do it well. I wanted to do some after-hours experimentation with the medium and the format, both for personal and professional gratification. And that's how I ended up launching So What, Who Cares?

I've got a month's experience under my belt. I thought I'd share what I've learned here with you, who have patiently tuned in on other experiments I've done in the ongoing quest to Do Things Better.

Would you all like to be lab rats?

I don't talk much about my day job on my personal blog for many reasons, some of which may actually demonstrate mature good judgment.

But one of the ongoing tasks I have is to assess email as an effective form of editorial content. I spend a lot of time thinking about email newsletters -- what makes the good ones good, why they work in this age of social media and texting, how to make them work better, how much effort it takes to produce something of value to the readers.

It's one thing to think big thoughts on the job. I'm also doing some private experimenting so I can bring real-world experience to bear on anything I say on the job.

My new experiment: I've launched a semi-daily newsletter of my own through Tiny Letter. It's called So What, Who Cares, and you can subscribe here.

So What, Who Cares is published every Monday-Thursday night. I point out three to five things that you might like to know, explaining why they matter (So what?) and who they affect (Who cares?). It's a news digest with context -- and the odd bit of pop culture gushing when I read or see something worth my time.

Because I am commiting to my professional experiment for a few months, long-form blogging here will be infrequent at best. But I hope to see you all via Twitter, or via subscription to So What, Who Cares. (You can read the archive here.)

And if you all have ideas on how to continue conversations based on what I'm covering in So What, Who Cares ... I'm all ears. Facebook? Twitter? Open posts here? Tell me.