🔶 #18: "So how do brands stop faking community and actually earn it?"

Hello and welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter 👋

There's only one word I can start this edition with, and it's Thank You. (Ok, two words, whatever.)

Your response to last week's announcement of the collaboration between News Alchemists and House of Kaizen has been so freaking heartwarming that, at multiple points, I was almost melting. I talk about wanting to give you hope through this newsletter – but, over the last week, *I* was the one on the receiving end of a flood of hope and encouragement:

❝I’ve been really enjoying News Alchemists - it’s smart, thoughtful, and full of insight. I’m genuinely happy to see it paying off, especially now with a business model in place! ❞

❝Congrats on the sponsorship - it went really organic with the rest of the content. The work you are doing on the newsletter, man... is great. ❞

❝That's so exciting to read, Mattia - so happy you got such an awesome partnership early on! It's great to have the recognition and motivation to keep doing what you believe in! ❞

I also got a couple of messages from readers wanting to know more about how sponsoring News Alchemists works, so they can lobby their own companies to support this newsletter too. 🥹

Thank you again for making this experience so rewarding. You're awesome.

But enough about the newsletter (the product), and let's move to this week's newsletter (the content):