What's the best news newsletter?
January 10, 2024 5:33 AM

I've been subscribing to the Need2Know email newsletter for years because I loved that it was a brief, simple recap of the 10 biggest news stories of the day. Unfortunately, now that their parent company has been acquired, the newsletter is just a list of 5 clickbait links and no longer the useful daily news recap I liked before. What's the replacement?

Ideally, my replacement newsletter would be as similar to the old Need2Know as possible, that is, a brief recap of each of the ~10 biggest news stories of the day. I loved that it let me detach from the 24-hour news cycle by spending a few minutes each morning getting up to speed on the biggest stories to be aware of.

What I liked about it was:
-It was free to subscribe (ad-supported, which is fine with me)
-There were articles linked for each story, but the articles/news were recapped in the newsletter itself. In other words, it was not a "10 articles you need to read today"-style newsletter
-The recaps were short and simple - just a few sentences each
-The news it featured was focused on the US (where I live), though not limited to the US
-It was not focused on any one theme or topic - neither a specific one like "politics" or "arts" nor a broad/general one like "good news" or "lesser-known news"
-It was not run by a newspaper or magazine such as Washington Post, NYT, etc.
-It was not a political/activist newsletter and had minimal editorial commentary
posted by capricorn to Computers & Internet (9 answers total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
I know that NextDraft is quite popular on MeFi but it looks more like "5 stories I personally found interesting today" rather than "the 5 stories you need to be aware of to stay current on what's going on" - can someone confirm or deny?
posted by capricorn at 5:34 AM on January 10


Watching intently. After yahoo news digest died I've NEVER found a replacement. I've tried axios but somehow I just... It doesn't work for me.
posted by chasles at 6:56 AM on January 10


Maybe 1440 might tick most of your boxes?
posted by PaulZ at 7:19 AM on January 10


News Minimalist has been filling a similar space for me online, I haven't tried their newsletter, but it looks good.
posted by gregr at 7:21 AM on January 10


The Washington Post's "The 7" daily email (and podcast) at 7:00AM is good: https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/the-7/

Each story gets a one-sentence headline, and then a few sentences on why it's important under headings like "What to Know" and "What now" or "What's next."

(I know you don't want one tied to a newspaper, but I find this one is better than many others I have tried.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:23 AM on January 10


I like 1440, myself.
posted by maryellenreads at 8:04 AM on January 10


Thirding 1440. I just paid for a year's subscription, but it is available free with ads.
posted by fruitslinger at 10:13 AM on January 10


1440 looks like just what I need. Thank you everybody!
posted by capricorn at 2:25 PM on January 10


Just checking in to say I have been subscribed to 1440 for a couple months now and I like it. Thank you all again!
posted by capricorn at 5:23 AM on March 13


« Older Insomnia, oh my!   |   Quirky lush music Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments