Best Newsletters from the 2020 Awards

by Tim D'Avis Second Street

The Iditarod Newsletter

Anchorage Daily News | Anchorage, AK

*2019 Second Street Award – Best Newsletter Winner

This daily newsletter from Anchorage Daily News ran for the two-week span of the Iditarod race and produced phenomenal results for the paper. During the run of the newsletter the audience grew over 250% and reached over 3,000 subscribers by the end of its short run with a 53% open rate. The newsletter was a formal experiment for the team at ADN – they wanted to see if a destination newsletter was a good format for them, and it ended up producing above average opens and clicks compared to their other newsletters. Newsletter miniseries like this are a great opportunity for local media companies to experiment with form and engagement tactics. Read the full case study here.

Iditarod Newsletter

Contests and Events Newsletter

Bonneville Seattle | Seattle, WA

Bonneville Seattle’s Contest and Events newsletter grew the stations’ list by 29,000 in less than 18 months! This list growth continues to drive big boosts in promotion participation and plays a key role in the papers’ lead generation campaigns using the SecondStreet platform.

Daily Headlines

Daily Herald | Chicago, IL

The Daily Herald’s daily headlines newsletter continues to show solid performance every year. The paper has worked to grow their email list with promotions which has resulted in over 30,000 audience members and an average open rate of 28%.

Daily Headlines from Daily Herald

Dave & Chuck’s Daily Download

WRIF-FM | Detroit, MI

Dave and Chuck are hosts of a syndicated Morning Show from WRIF-FM. Each day, they send out a newsletter to showcase the irreverent content generated by the show. This is a great way for the station to connect with listeners online.

Daily Download email from Dave and Chuck

Breaking News

KEZI-TV | Eugene, Oregon

KEZI’s ‘Breaking News’ newsletter is a consistently solid performer, currently sitting at over 17,000 opt-ins. They sent 540 news alerts last year while maintaining a 25% open rate, 99.8% delivery rate, and a 6% click rate. These results mean their audience is engaged and responding.

KEZI Breaking News newsletter

The Latest Newsletter

Meriden Record-Journal | Meriden, CT

Meriden Record-Journal revamped their daily newsletter and saw huge improvements in their engagement numbers. They moved away from daily headlines format for a more authored presentation and went from 5,000 to 12,000 opt-ins this year while improving their open rate, as well.

Record Journal newsletter with latest news

Find inspiration from these media companies to enhance (or start!) your own email newsletter program. Whether it’s making your newsletters more personal, leveraging better testing and analytics, or even cleaning up an outdated email database, see how you can improve on your newsletter strategy today.

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