29 Sep 2026 5 min read

🔶 #78 | Welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter

Eight weeks later, it's good to be back.

"Hey Mattia! Hope you’re doing well. While I was on maternity leave I collected some industry newsletters to go through when I was back. News Alchemists was one of them and I've loved getting ideas from your newsletter. And I am missing it at the moment! When are you back?"

The answer is "Today!", dear reader – welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter! 👋

And a warm first welcome to new subscribers who joined over the last eight weeks from ProPublica, AFP, The i Paper, CT Mirror, FACTA, The Globe & Mail, The Indian Express, BNN, The Connexion, Internews, Avrupa Media Group, Bauer Media, The Trace, VEX, Cidacs, Copenhagen Business School, Medialivre, and to all of you brave souls working independently.

I've never experienced 'blank page syndrome' since I started writing this newsletter, but today I do.

What's the appropriate way to make a comeback in people's inboxes after almost two months, when you're used to write to them every single week? Act like nothing happened? Or tell your readers about the joyful events that kept you away from writing? (Still not used to that ring on my finger...)

Let's just say that I missed you, and I missed this little space where we imagine and build together a future for journalism that is less "Here's what you should read." and more "How can I help you?"

Here's how it works if you need a refresher:

Every week, I curate for you a collection of hope-filled links with the goal of helping you reimagine journalism in a more people-centric direction. (This is how it all started.)

You check what links are most interesting to you, read them, enjoy them, share them with your professionally-loved ones... and tell them to subscribe to News Alchemists so you don't have to spend your precious time every week forwarding them these beautiful links. Easy peasy.

One more thing: there's nothing I enjoy more than getting to know my readers, learn about your work, and find unexpected opportunities to do cool things together. Reply to this email and let's have a chat, shall we?

See you next week. It's good to be back.

Mattia

#1 | Journalism keeps asking the wrong question

"We’re well past the point where tinkering at the edges of the current model is going to solve anything. Existential problems need radical solutions. [...] that’s why I have hope. [...] we have to reconnect with the fundamental purpose of journalism, by reimagining its practice – questioning the habits and formulas of the past, and assessing whether they’re actually fit for purpose at this critical inflection point." –– 🧞Shirish Kulkarni

#2 | Newsletters get treated as a broadcast medium. We use them to have conversations and build community

Do you want engagement? Not "engagement" as in opens and clicks but actual engagement with your readers? Then your newsletters can't just be a distribution channel for your journalism. You have to give your readers a reason to engage. Ideally more than one, suggests 🧞Cherry Agarwal.

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Psst... Do you need help with your newsletter(s) in Q4? Let's work together.

#3 | The reader who left your article early might be your most engaged user

"The assumption is this: engagement is one thing, and more of it is better. But engagement isn’t one thing. It’s the outcome of different reader behaviors, driven by different motivations. [...] A short session can mean the reader got exactly what they needed. A long one can mean depth — or friction. High article counts can mean curiosity, or confusion. The same metric means something different depending on what the reader was trying to do. Without that context, you’re pattern-matching on behavior you don’t fully understand."

Fantastic piece by 🧞Regula Marti

#4 | Engage, explain and empower: The Local Sweden's audience strategy during election season

"It can be easy to make assumptions about what readers actually want from news providers. So when it came to the Swedish elections earlier this month, [🧞Emma Löfgren] wanted to make sure the title's coverage reflected the needs of its audience."

Here's a crazy idea: ask your readers what they want from you, and you might end up learning exactly... how you can be useful to them. Crazy, I know.

#5 | The problem with the pivot to community

"The pivot to communities is definitely here. And in principle it’s a really good idea, [...] But there is a question nagging at me: can news providers really build genuine communities?"

I believe they can, but the questions asked by 🧞Alan Hunter in this piece are worth your time, and ultimately I agree with him: "The work of building communities will not succeed overnight and requires patience and endless iteration. If we are to really pivot to community, it’s going to be a long haul."

#6 | Yesterday it was Facebook. Today it’s AI. Tomorrow it’ll be something else

"The newsrooms and content teams that win will" do these five things, says 🧞Blair Hickman.

#7 | Habit ≠ loyalty

"Media strategy talk uses habit and loyalty almost interchangeably. Both show up in the same dashboard, as returning users, open rates, renewal rates. But they are different mechanisms, they fail differently, and confusing them leads newsrooms to fix the wrong thing." By 🧞Patrick Boehler. Amen.