This November, my blog will turn five years old. It wasn’t my first effort at blogging, but it is the virtual space and brand that has defined my work as an advocate for equality and an activist  more than any other effort since my days of exhibiting art work.  A friend asked the other day, why I had started a weekly newsletter, as she saw this as a competing effort to my blog. Certainly, the time invested in it takes time away from blogging, but I see these efforts as far more complimentary than competing.  So I thought I’d blog a bit about why I started the newsletter and what I hope to accomplish with it as well as why it is connected to the blog.

My blogging…

has changed over time. In the beginning, I posted as many as seven or eight times a day, and often these where links to other sites, with a sentence or two of my own. For the past two years, this has changed tremendously, and I now write a few, longer and original posts. My blog is more commentary and editorial than it was before. I stopped posting much simple news oriented stuff, and put more energy into writing about what things mean, why they are important, and how “the dots” can be connected between different stories. My two primary inspirations have been Rachel Maddow and Andrew Sullivan. I’m sure neither think they are much alike, but there is an aspect of each’s work that I aspire to incorporate.

Gay News…

is really just news as it may relate to the LGBTQ community. This isn’t always easy to see from either the mainstream media or the Gay Press however. Sometimes the stories are sensationalized, sometimes overlooked, but more often, just mixed in with all the rest of the news. It is easy to miss it, if you don’t follow mainstream news or start with a bias that says the LGBTQ community is always ignored by mainstream media. The Gay Press on the other hand, has a difficult job, and too often ends up being cheerleaders for a gay-themed story rather than providing real journalism. This isn’t a fault per se, rather just the changing times, and the fact that most Gay Press has very small budgets to do real thorough journalism. Plus, we really need cheerleaders for gay, lesbian, bi, trans and queer causes and stories!

But…

I think more and more people are gathering their news and commentary in alternative ways like on Facebook and Twitter, and I think the average person needs to discern the difference between news and journalism from commentary and editorial. These efforts- gathering news in social Media and discerning content are often conflicting efforts, as social media is a space where commentary and editorial rule, and facts and journalism can be sparse.

My Newsletter…

is an effort to try and separate out some of the news and journalism from the commentary and editorial, so that my readers have access to a broader assortment of facts and ideas, with which  to consider differing opinions and commentary. By separating out the content so that my blog remains commentary and editorial, it functions as a blog can and should. But the newsletter allows me to write simple sentences about what has happened, and then link them to more detailed stories that add the what, where, who, and why. I especially try and link to as many different sources as possible. One news site or one blog should never be your entire source of news. If it is, you aren’t really getting a full story.

My newsletter is an email newsletter, as that is a format that many people like and are comfortable with. It is user driven and controlled. The user has to sign up to receive it and can unsubscribe any time they want. But it is harder to get distracted and miss which can easily happen, when the user is required to go to a website or a blog. They get busy, and they never get there. Of course, for this to work, the user has to provide their email address, which some may not want to do for privacy sake. I promise to never share, sell or otherwise give to anyone else any email address that is a part of my newsletter list. The list is associated with my blog and not associated with any individual, organization, entity or company in any way, shape or form.

The newsletter is published once a week, generally on Thursday late afternoon/ early evening.

The Newsletter Progress…

so far has been really good if I look at who is subscribed. There is plenty of data out there for PR and media types about how to measure newsletter success.  Two meaningful metrics are the “open” rate, and the “click” rate. Do people open the email they receive from you, and once they do, how many follow links in the newsletter to get more information? My numbers in both regards are really excellent!

• Open rate: My newsletter: 69.2%  Industry average: 21.5%   This is about 3.5 times the average!
• Click rate: My newsletter: 23.1%  Industry average: 3.1%      This is almost 8 times the average!

The only thing…

is that I don’t have that many subscribers yet!  My blog averages 1,200-1,500unique visitors a month, but my newsletter subscription numbers are way, way, way below that. If you are not already a subscriber, why not subscribe right now!