Newsletters we love – and you could, too.
We’re constantly looking to optimize our work + life. And a big part of our work and digital strategy as a whole is being aware of what’s going on in the world, what trends are out there, and what our niche groups are talking about. As M.T. Deco has grown this past year, we’ve been so fortunate to add more brains to our mix. That means more insights, more “have you seen this?” and more laughs.
On the total MTD team, we’ve got marrieds, moms, singles, fur-mamas, side-hustlers, entrepreneurs, corporate types-who wish to remain anonymous, and freelancers. We’re all looking at all sorts of different content, and we decided the best way that we could help you optimize your life and work is to share what our team reads on the daily / weekly / monthly that allows us to do our best work and live our best lives.
Here’s our top newsletters you need to subscribe to in 2023.
Daily News (to keep you up with what’s going on in the world)
News Not Noise. We’ve been News Not Noise fans (now a daily newsletter) since it started during the pandemic. Jessica Yellin does a nice job of editing out, but still addressing the “news” that hasn’t actually been confirmed, and any other additional fluff you shouldn’t waste brain space on (our words not hers). It’s Super palatable and not overwhelming. We also love her podcast, if you want more in depth info on certain topics.
The Morning. This one – from the NYTimes – we read while still under the covers trying to convince ourselves not to hit the snooze yet again. It contains one deep-dive into a notable topic, plus all the headlines + coverage of big stories you may need to start the day off / make your way through a meeting without sounding like you’ve missed something major. And we live for the “what to watch, read, and cook” that rounds out the end of each newsletter.
Morning Brew - A lot of media orgs have tried to capture the millennial voice and it's usually cringe-worthy, but MB does a solid job of writing to its audience and using jokes appropriately so it doesn't feel too desperate (most of the time). Since MB doesn't have to constantly link back to its own websites, there is a great mix of stories. We skim the big story of the day and usually scroll to the roundup sections (Tour de headlines, Key performance indicators, and What else is brewing) to see stories that you won't necessarily find in straight news-of-day newsletters.
Reliable Sources. A longtime favorite newsletter of our founder Melissa’s (that she also happened to love reading during middle of the night feedings when her kids were babies). It’s a great digestion of the day's news with industry gossip and commentary baked in. We’re still adjusting to the post-Brian Stelter version since he left CNN, but are growing to enjoy it more -- bonus that Melissa gets to read it earlier in the evening since she moved to the west coast.
Nieman Lab is a great companion newsletter to Reliable Sources, highlighting the best stories related to journalism from a variety of sources, including mainstream media and even substacks. It's essentially a link newsletter, but it's highly curated, and not as time-consuming as RS.
Culture + Trends (to keep you digitally savvy + culturally relevant)
13 things I found on the internet today from Messy Nessy Chic. We have been Messy Nessy fans for almost a decade. The newsletter is a feast for the visually driven and curious minded. Everything from “Inside Jeremy Irons’ Incredible Rescued & Restored a 15th-Century Irish Castle” to “Joan Didion’s belongings from her NY apartment are up for auction” or images of Food towers & cakes of early 19th century France.
Scrolling with Sophie. We started following Sophie Ross [@SophRossss] on Twitter because we have similar tastes in reality TV. We love her snarky commentary, so when we saw she had a Substack, we immediately subscribed. Who doesn’t love witty commentary and discussions on celebrity + influencer culture?
Zine by Matt Klein. Matt is a Foresight & Strategy Lead at Reddit so he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to culture. Zine highlights the trends and cultural movements that we see happening subconsciously and brings them to the forefront with amazing insights.
Culture Porn. We are slightly biased here since we helped develop this weekly cultural insights newsletter with our longtime client CULTIQUE, but it’s a great end-of-week newsletter that always leads with great content reviews to help you choose what to watch heading into the weekend. It’s also full of smart observations and insights across culture - from art, to music, to shows, to nature, adventures, you name it. Guarantee you will learn something in each edition.
Content / Marketing (to help you nerd out)
Total Annarchy by Ann Handley. Ann is a journalist-turned marketer and her content-first philosophy is totally aligned with our Head of Content’s. In fact, Jamie uses Ann's book "Everybody Writes" as the one 'textbook' in her digital content strategy course. In Ann’s newsletter, she shares mini-case studies, interesting writing, or other items she finds important. A recent one discussed a new metric (the Open to Write Back Rate) she was tracking for her newsletter. She did a deep dive into what the importance of it is, why she decided to track it (and why it's important), and plus! how we, the readers, could use it, too. Ann writes in a completely conversational tone that is not only accessible, but it's often funny. Reading her newsletter is like grabbing a coffee with your super smart pal who always brings an interesting nugget to dish about. Also, the biweekly cadence of this newsletter is perfect – it's not too much to annoy you, or make you feel guilty that you’ve deleted before you’ve read it (like with many daily newsletters). We recommend it if you're into content, marketing, or curious about either realms.
The Radice Files. Emmy winning journalist / marketer and longtime MTD mentor Frank Radice curates what he's reading and consuming each week. If you're looking for a top notch aggregator on all things media, marketing, politics and culture, The Radice Files is for you.
Lifestyle (to help you chillax or be productive, your choice)
a newsletter. If you’re a fan of simple and delicious recipes, this newsletter is for you. It’s straightforward, no fuss - it doesn’t even have a name? - and each edition serves up one recipe at a time, paired with the droolworthy photography Alison is known for on social media and in her cookbooks. It’s a great go-to, you won’t be disappointed.
Girls Night In. This one is an introvert’s dream. It’s a Friday morning newsletter that shares all the things you need / want to read / want to buy when you can’t imagine going out on a Friday night. It’s the venn diagram of interests for those of us well into our 30s…