 Yeah, my session was going to be called who even reads newsletters, right? So I'm sorry Abhishek because Frankly, I know you you're clearly a big fan of newsletters, but before I started on this journey. I Was not right. So how does this thing work? Yeah, so I signed up for scores of newsletters in my life, right? I'm a journalist. I've been in the media for like 11 12 years now and Throughout like Since when I've had an email ID and I've discovered that you can sign up to newsletters and it is somewhat of a It's considered a good thing or it's considered Intellectual or smart to be like signing up to newsletters I've been signing up to like a bunch of newsletters in my life and most of them going to trash Right. They're there in my distinct. I'm even afraid like, you know, I'm like, okay Maybe next week or maybe tomorrow. I will actually click on that newsletter open it and read the entire thing And therefore I don't even mark it spam I just like, you know, like selected and put into trash and hope that the next day it again comes back to the inbox and for some reason it does and for me, it's difficult because like, I mean, I subscribed to Rohan's political fix, which I opened once in a while Right, then I subscribe to a bunch of like long read stuff because I think I'm the kind of person who should be reading long form Except I never have the time. I never have the time to read long form. I never have the time to sort of, you know go in and like deep dive into Seven different opinions that people have on and all of them are like, you know, thousand five hundred two thousand five thousand words long and I really You know, the kind of newsletters that I realized that I would open later on I mean quite recently in fact because we started doing like we started taking newsletters more seriously And you know, there was so much talk of like, yeah, you need to do newsletter and that's the only way to like succeed and stuff like that So I started like Subscribing to like more and more newsletters, right? I signed up to the more and more newsletters and I realized that Most of them I wouldn't read unless I needed to like open something and like see something specific Like, you know, how are they doing something or, you know, how is it that they're summarizing something? How is it that there's anything something? What is the design? Like how does it look on mobile versus how does it look on desktop? Like if I had those questions then I would open a newsletter, but as um Would I do it for like pleasure? Right most of the time no until I found some fun newsletters about like, you know entertainment or like queer movies and stuff like that like otherwise I would never like sort of actually open newsletter and read the entire thing in my life So for me, um, I was a non-believer Maybe I am not a believer yet. I don't know right so when we said As I was saying earlier just a little bit about news minutes journey TNM the news minute. So TNM has been around since 2014 um, we are a digital native we are mobile first and Yes, it's it's it's been like, you know interesting sort of Being out there and covering South India, which pretty much Not many people do in English, right? I mean Yes, there are organizations in Tamil and Malayalam and Canada and Telugu which cover news from South India quite well However in English, I mean we have national media who are living in these deli and bombay Bubbles and they don't care like what happens outside of those deli and bombay bubbles um, so uh when TNM started we realized that this was our usp and uh people responded to that, right? So that's what we've been on. That's the journey that we've been on. That is our usp. We cover the south um, we've been thinking about membership for a while as most Media organization or especially most digital media organizations which have realized that you know, reader revenue is Uh, very important. So we've been thinking about membership for a while I was uh part of uh google and columbia fellowship uh last year So the project uh that I went with was also uh our membership program and we always wanted to like sort of focus on our NRI uh audience For our membership, right? So we wanted to say that you know, these are the people that we want to go to and ask them to like support us And we've never wanted to go behind the paywall. We've never said that, you know, we want to go behind the paywall one reason is because I mean look at the country that we are in look at the place that we are in There's so much like fake news so much misinformation and disinformation and so many people like believing whatever they see on whatsapp and there's so much Crap out there, right? so people who do put out actual news and to fact checked news Ground reporting we should be available for people who want to read us And that was one reason we've decided not to go behind the paywall. However, we do want to read it Like pretty much everyone else, right? And we do know that he does want to support us. There are many people who want to support independent media Many people who want to support BNM So membership is the way we've chosen to go And uh, uh, we've you know been working on it for a while However, it was not the plan to start as suddenly as we did in April this year end of April in May sorry in May this year Um, that was uh, purely the pandemic, right? The pandemic hit and it hit the entire media industry And uh, especially people like us, right? Like smaller media organizations, web media organizations are advertising revenue like bashed We needed to do something fast. We needed to do something to survive and we saw like news of huge legacy media organizations like firing people which was a shock to us because if Someone as small as us can take that decision to sort of say We're going to like, you know, do our best to make sure that that doesn't happen Then you see legacy media doing that and you're like, okay, like, you know, what is it that they're doing wrong? Um, but yeah, so we decided that we needed to uh, do something like quickly We got an email from our CEO To tell all of us that you know, we know that this is happening in the media industry in India But it's not going to happen to us like none of you are going to get fired Right or none of you are going to have to take a pay cut. We may not have like Appraisals for a bit, but that's okay. So that was the message To the employees and so we regrouped and we said, okay We are going to start a membership program for our India readers Which of course is uh, uh, it's a game at scale right in India. You can't money make money unless you have like A lot of members But we still decide to sort of take the plunge and we went to our readers and we said Uh, we don't have everything ready. We were honest about that. We don't have everything right? We want to give you a bunch of things, but we don't have them ready What we will give you right now is a VP newsletter And once we have everything else ready and for that, we need your help, right? We need some money to be able to come in and sometime to be able to get all of these things ready Um, then you get all the other benefits. So that's what we went in with and people responded greatly and uh, yeah, so that was the first I mean the second newsletter of TNM. The first newsletter has been around since I don't know when That's a day wrap. We send it out to It's a free newsletter that goes out to whoever signs up and that goes out. It's just a brief It's a curation of like, you know stories that we've done through the day That might be of interest to our readers. So, uh, the newsletter the first membership newsletter was here's the thing That's what we started I'll come to like what we do with that in a bit So, uh, for me, like, you know, when we decided to do this and when we decided that okay The newsletter is the one thing that we can give our members, right? And that's when like the non-believer in me had to be like challenged and say, okay You've got to do this now, right? You've got to do this now and let's see what's the best we can do with it Right? So for me, the personal challenge is like, how do I make a person who is like me, right? Who is Uh, probably wants to look smart and intellectual and whatever wants to believe that, you know, they're Brainy enough to like subscribe to a bunch of like intellectual things But when it actually comes down to reality, they don't have the time, right? They don't have the concentration They are distracted by 100 things happening in life and they're living in the middle of a pandemic Right? How do I make that person open my newsletter? So that is my personal challenge as I went into this and One thing is to make them open that newsletter once and then the next challenge is to make them do it regularly How do I make them open that newsletter regularly? Right? So those are my challenges So TNM's newsletter, we have the daily DAP which is free for anyone who wants to sign up Um, then the first newsletter that we started for our members, uh, India members Here's the thing and this is uh going out to members in India and our NRI members The TNM Roots Program, which is our NRI membership program. Uh, so here's the thing is more, uh, analysis It's more non rhetorical opinion and it has a bunch of Modules right like basically we have a main piece in the newsletter every week, which is like, uh, you know a take on something but not a hot take We try very hard to avoid like rhetorical like, you know Hot twitter take type stuff and try and give like, you know, some information or some sort of depth to the piece Uh, we also try and get in like expert voices once in a while um, we uh in the the newsletter also has uh, I see why am I uh, and in case you missed it A story of I mean basically five Stories from across the web, right? Uh, it doesn't have to be TNM We uh, whatever. I mean scroll has published something that is interesting. We put that in there, uh, if You know wire has something or hindustan times has something we just like, you know, say, okay These are the five stories that the person purating the newsletter mostly me Uh, thinks that you know, you should probably read uh this week if you have the time So we put that together and because uh, we are doing membership and not subscription and I want to like make that distinction Very clear a lot of people say they are doing membership and they're actually doing subscription Uh, but we are doing membership right membership is about Saying that you know, you become a part of our community. Uh, you become a part of our journey and you actually like, you know Are more invested than just saying Like, uh, times if I dare a Hindu. Hey, I give you money. I throw a newspaper at you No, that's not the relationship that we want with our members, right? Uh, so, uh, one of the things that we are doing is sort of asking members to You know, send in their recommendation to the rest of the community for what they Want to think that they should like read or watch or you know, cook Uh this week So, um, that's a uh, I mean, they're still in the beginning stages I would say so it's still a bit of a you know, I have to reach out to members from the community It's not like, you know, they're still, uh Coming to me with like a lot of like voluntary sometimes they do but like not all the time And uh, we also decided that this is a place where we will tell people like, you know, who are the people Who are working in the TNM? So here's the thing also like sort of has a column or a little column Where one of our colleagues is featured every week and it's uh, I mean one is I think, um, most people do want to know, right? Who is it that is Doing that work, right? And who are these people beyond that Twitter handle or beyond that byline like who is this person? So to see that from somebody else's eyes like see that like a small informal write up about that person from someone else as I think Interesting and I think readers also do enjoy that. I do see that like a lot of people do go check out their twitter profiles when we write about somebody and stuff like that and Secondly, it's a great, uh moral boost for my own team, right? Like for our people It's great to say that, you know, I'm getting recognized for the work that I do and for the person that I am And it's great. I mean that is extremely important Um for any organization, especially in the middle of a pandemic Okay, so the third one, uh TNM Briefs, uh, it goes out only to our TNM Roots members And like I was telling Abhishek earlier, uh, the second edition of that newsletter went out last night Um, and the fourth one is mosaic. Uh, we've only had one edition go out It's only for TNM Roots members. TNM Briefs is again It's basically a curated thing of like saying if I wake up in the morning and I'm living in a different time zone What happened in South India back then, right in those 12 hours that I was sleeping What happened in South India? What do I need to like sort of catch up on? Um without having to go to like a hundred different sources or having to depend on like WhatsApp forwards and stuff like that So that is the aim of TNM Briefs and mosaic is a fortnightly culture and arts round up That we are sending out to NRI members again because they want to know like what is happening in India It's not always possible to sort of keep in touch with all of it in like one place It's difficult to sort of say who am I going to and how am I going to get this information? So these are the newsletters that we have Uh, the challenges we struggle just like everyone else I frankly don't think anyone has like figured out newsletters so well that you know Every issue has a great open rate or anything that's all right. We all struggle We all like sort of make sure try to make sure that every um uh issue of the newsletter has uh something of interest and uh, you know, it's sent out at the right time on the right day when most people will open And then you're thinking about like, you know, is it a holiday? Is it because it's a holiday that a lot of people are not opening it? Or is something else happening? Is there like something else happening in the news wheel because of it? So nobody's like interested in it or uh, you know, is it a subject that is? Uh, that so many people are talking about Like for instance Is it uh pride month and is everybody talking about pride month because of which my newsletter is like ending up in spam So all of these things are Struggles all of these are challenges Uh, but it's crucial for our success because we have a membership model as I said Like newsletters are crucial for our success and how much ever of a non-believer I was like now I am like oh Bring this on like this is a challenge and I'm gonna do this right and we take hard in knowing They're literally no one has figured it out like I uh, I don't know. I mean, maybe there are people who have like 100% open rates or 80% open rates or whatever Uh, but uh, you know, we are not those people for sure Uh, we experiment and we fail fast, right? So it's not like, you know, we are doing the same thing and we know that it's not working But we're still going to like continue doing this forever forever forever. No, I mean, we know something is not working then change it Right, uh, particular time is not working change it. Uh, let's see Let's let's figure out like what is it that is that made my newsletter have an open rate of 40% last week But it's only like 20% this week. So what is the difference between that and this? Is it the subject? Is it You know something else that is technical, right? So all of those things So we just like keep experimenting and we fail fast and like move on to the next thing in case it's not working So the milestones Abhishek wanted me to talk about milestones. What are the milestones? I don't have specific milestones. This is I'm new to this journey, right? So the day we realize our paid newsletter was getting forwarded was a great day for me Okay, so we're like, okay, this newsletter is only for members Only members can like open this and then I'm looking at the open rates and I'm like, okay There is something like I look at the data and I'm like, there are a lot of people that I didn't send the newsletter to who are opening it And I'm like, hey, that's that's great Right, because that means that there is desirability. That means that somebody who Has paid for the newsletter wants their friends to read it Or you know things that there is something of value to like forward this to somebody else and that's great Right, even if that other person is not paying for it. The fact that there is desirability is great for me Some weeks we hit a hope 40% open rate and I'm like, wow. Yeah, like great. I want my Extra cake for this week, right? Then um, the greatest Thing is like feedback, right when readers write back with their thoughts and they say, you know, this is something that I didn't think about You know, thanks for telling me this and then I want to like implement this or even to say, you know You wrote about all of these things, but you missed out a big thing This is a perspective that you didn't bring it That's great. That's feedback, right and I live for feedback whenever anybody like sends in Long emails and there are some people who do right and I'm always grateful to them people who send in like a 500 word 600 word 700 dirt email in response to a thousand word newsletter. I mean, I love those guys, right? So when that happens, you know that, you know, you're reaching out to people in a meaningful way It's not something that they're just gonna, uh, you know, look at open and like forget about tomorrow But they put some thought into it and they wanted to respond to you for some reason and that's great Right, uh, another is when someone signs up because they know, uh, what's in a particular issue Right, so we've had somebody write about it and we like sort of promote on social And when we promote on social somebody says, hey, how can I read this thing and we tell them, you know You have to become a member to be able to read this And then they said, yeah, okay, this is worth it. This is worth my money Right and then they sign up to become a member and that's that's a great milestone for me Biggest milestone couple of days back finally my sister who lives in Dublin decided that She would sign up for our membership program Uh, because I sent her the first issue of 30 and I'm briefed and she was like, yeah, okay fine Right, like this I can get behind and until then she was like, no, no, no, I'm not gonna pay. I'm not gonna pay Right, so that was a big milestone for me