Today’s mail brought a copy of the third edition of a college textbook, Computers in Your Future. It has a brief case study on one new trend enabled by the Internet: email publishing, using This is True as its example.
I’m gratified to note that the authors got the details correct! And they conclude:
Randy is not alone in using the Internet to reach an online audience, nor is ‘This is True’ the only newsletter being distributed via email. He is, however, one of the most successful. New online publishers are springing up every week, and the market for online newsletters is growing rapidly. Randy Cassingham, and publishers like him, represent a new type of publisher which we will see more of in the future.
It has been interesting to notice lately that I get more interview requests these days from book authors than magazine writers!
That said, Salon magazine did a story last week on some of the new services popping up that are offering free email list hosting, and I was interviewed for that. I’m biased (since they’re a consulting client of mine), but I think the newest entrant in the field, Topica, is the best of the bunch.
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That was then, this is now: if I were setting up a new newsletter today, I’d use AWeber over Topica. It’s the service I now use.