Since 2006 we've been sending an email newsletter to journalists called the DWPub JournAlert. It proved popular and in 2009 it even got its own website.
Initially the JournAlert was weekly, then it became twice-weekly and today we've upped it to daily.
Why did we do this? For a while we've been getting requests from journalists to increase the frequency as sending it just twice a week meant the emails were very long and difficult to read. It also meant some people who submitted items of media news did not see their stories go out straight away. For example, if we heard about a new launch on Friday afternoon we could not put it in the JournAlert email until the following Wednesday.
So, we went ahead and made it daily, and at the same time went for a complete redesign of the emails to make them easier to read and navigate. The amount of content per week is pretty much the same, we've just broken it up into smaller chunks. And we're now able to be more responsive to breaking news.
The response so far has been good, with lots of people commenting positively on the new design. But of course it hasn't worked for everyone - someone quite rightly asked: "Why would journalists want *more* emails?"
We're looking into doing a weekly digest as an alternative to the daily emails. And nothing is ever set in stone, so if the daily emails really don't work out for most people then we'll reduce the frequency.
There are already two alternatives to the email version of the JournAlert which will give you most of the content that appears in the emails. For the increasing number of people who, like myself, use Twitter regularly then you can follow @journalert. And there is a JournAlert RSS feed if you like to get your news in an RSS reader.
Whichever your preference, we love to hear your thoughts so please comment on this post if you feel the daily JournAlert emails are too much. I'd also love to know if a weekly digest would be as good as the old twice-weekly emails. Let me know!
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