Benefits of email marketing for journalists

Are you a journalist who's looking to go independent, grow your own audience, and write on your own terms? Every day it feels like someone new is going independent and making a living off it.

But it's hard choosing a newsletter provider. On the one hand, you want someplace established that will be around for the long haul. On the other, some of the big players may not share your point of view, or they may not have your best interests in mind.

That's where we come in. Whether you're looking to start out right now, or you're migrating from a platform that is no longer for you, Buttondown is an ideal solution. We:

• Enable you to set up free & paid tiers, with public archives & hard paywalls
• Let you keep all the money you make (no 10%+ fees!)
• Have team accounts that let multiple people write for you at once
• Migrate you from other platforms for free, no questions asked

Creative autonomy

Email is beneficial for journalists because it is a universal platform. Newsletters are a quick and easy way to directly communicate with your audience and build an active community. Independent journalists get a lot of value out of having a newsletter because of the creative freedom that email gives them.

Freedom and ownership are hard to come by in journalism. Often when working with larger media companies, journalists face pushback when expressing journalistic creativity and may have to compromise ethics. It can be difficult to control your content and how it is presented to audiences. Newsletters are a good platform to control your narrative, build your brand, and foster an active and engaged community. Most importantly, you don’t need to compromise who you are as a journalist with newsletters.

Build community

Newsletters are the perfect platform for building trust with a growing community. With Buttondown, people can reply to any of your emails, and you can optionally turn commenting on to give people a place to talk with one another.

Build rich newsletters

We let you attach anything to your newsletter – and integrate with a variety of media outlets like YouTube, your podcast, or your other articles or blog posts.

Journalists love us

Buttondown is trusted by multiple journalists, including:

Ed Yong, a British-American science journalist, a Pulitzer winner, and the author of two bestselling books, An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes. Ed uses his newsletter, The Ed’s Up, to update readers about his writing, new projects, speaking events, book recommendations, and more.

The Xylom, founded in 2018, and based in Atlanta, The Xylom is a non-profit, Gen-Z-run newsroom covering the communities influencing and being shaped by science. The Xylom is the only science outlet run by and for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. The Xylom’s newsletter is a space for musings, reader submissions, and a curated collection of must-read science stories, with a focus on the American South.

Julia Angwin, an award-winning investigative journalist, a bestselling author, a New York Times contributing Opinion writer, and a Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Julia’s newsletter, Updates from Julia, sends subscribers periodic updates of her latest writing and projects.

Join Buttondown today

Conclusion

We offer an intuitive interface, powerful tools, and superior customer support. Our affordable prices start at just $9/mo. We're grateful for every journalist that's taken a chance with us, and we hope to do the same with you.