#newstrack – Lillian W Eden

The New York Times newsletters are a way to get highlights of the news delivered straight to your inbox. The general newsletter arrives six days a week, every weekday and one for the weekend. They’re particularly convenient if you’re in a rush or don’t have time to read the full newspaper. The format suits both desktop and mobile, with none of the translational issues sometimes seen when something is available on both.

Credit: New York Times Morning Briefing Newsletter, captured on desktop at 10:44 AM on October 21, 2019.

For the general newsletter, each one typically consists of multiple sections, just as the actual paper would, in manageably readable chunks. The top stories each have a few hundred words, sometimes a picture, and often hyperlinks within the blurbs relevant to the article. For particularly important topics, especially in politics, there will also be brief sections following the blurb. Today, for example, for the blurb about Turkey and nuclear weapons, there is a related link, about Trump, another angle, from the Kurdish, and a link to the podcast The Daily about a relevant topic.

Credit: Morning Briefing from the New York Times, phone screenshot captured at 10:40AM on October 21, 2019.

Additionally, because so much of the newsletter would have been taken up by news of the impeachment, the NYTimes decided to create a separate newsletter for all those already subscribed to the regular newsletter. It can be unsubscribed from easily, but it keeps the regular newsletter feeling less dominated by contentious politics in the U.S.

There are other sections in the main newsletter, including, wonderfully, ‘Now a break from the news,’ which I always enjoy, because I really feel like I need it these days.

Typically seen here are recipes, gallery recommendations, book and TV recommendations, and sometimes a fluffy interest piece, like today, ‘here’s how to clean your sneakers.’

A daily newsletter on the top stories isn’t the only thing on offer, however. At nytimes.com/news, one can view the full list of just how many newsletters the New York Times offers, a brief summary, and how often they’re sent to you. You can even click to see a sample of what you can expect to see. There are so many they’re separated by section, such as News and Politics, and Opinion. It looks like there’s only one in a foreign language, but hopefully they’re working on that.

Credit: New York Times, Captured on desktop at 11:00 AM on October 21, 2019.

This is a great thing that they’re offering, a little sample of the kind of news you’d like to see, delivered right to your inbox.

The NY times maintains Instagram and twitter. They have themed accounts on both sites, for books, tech, arts, and others. The twitter feeds are frequently updated, while Instagram feeds seem to be falling by the wayside. Even the NYtimes book twitter has been updated twice today already, while the main Instagram account hasn’t been updated in a while.

At the time of this writing, the NYtimes posted on their main twitter two minutes, thirteen minutes, and twenty three minutes ago. The last time they posted on their main Instagram account was yesterday. I think it’s interesting that they don’t post as frequently on their Instagram since the reception on Instagram seems to be more robust. Something newsworthy on twitter that went up at around the same time (15 hours ago), received only 270 likes, 80 retweets, and 164 comments. The Instagram post, meanwhile, garnered 114 comments and more than 10k likes.

Credit: NYtimes twitter feed, captured at 9:45AM on October 7, 2019.

Credit: Nytimes instagram, Captured at 9:49AM on October 7, 2019

There are a few things that could explain the NYtimes Instagram post’s popularity. It is the last thing that was posted, so it’s the first thing that comes up if you visit the NYtimes page. The twitter post, on the other hand, required a lot of scrolling to find. Since the twitter feed posts more frequently, when people check the feed, something that happened 15 hours ago is very far down, and people might not be scrolling all the way down until the last place they checked.

The content could also come into play. The tweet I’m referring to is a story by the NYtimes revealing that the president of the Philippines has a neuromuscular disease. The Instagram post is a fun piece on a themed train ride inspired by “Soul Train.” It’s newsworthy because people are having fun at a unique event, and, as it’s Instagram, so it’s a story with a prominent photo which is easy to relate to.

All in all, though, it seems like the NYtimes is mostly ignoring a platform where news and photos get a lot of good reception.

Tag: #newstrack

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