Good morning! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Esther. No new podcast episode today as we released three last week: a Digital News Report 2022 Special, and a two-part Media Voices at Cannes series, kindly sponsored by Sovrn.

Improving the online reading experience — www.inpublishing.co.uk

Ex-Times Head of Digital Alan Hunter has written an excellent piece on creating the optimal online reading experience. He was one of the pioneers of The Times' industry-leading app (we spoke to him back in 2018 about it), so his advice is worth paying attention to.

Much of what he says is framed within the context of print to digital conversion. But there are still plenty of valuable lessons for digitally-native publishers.

My favourite point is that article length is not a good guide to reader engagement; data from his time at The Times showed that readers engaged equally with long or short articles. However, it is important to communicate length with them. "If the piece is many thousands of words long and will require a significant time commitment on behalf of the reader, then be sure to tell them about it," he advises.

The New European raises £510,000 in two days by inviting readers to invest — pressgazette.co.uk

The publication opened its funding round at 9am on Monday. By Wednesday morning, it had raised over £513,000, surpassing its £500,000 target. The New European has been on a fascinating journey since originally launching as a pop-up with a limited run. Editor Matt Kelly wants to use the funding for marketing and to raise the profile of the paper among potential readers.

One year later: Who won the pandemic newsletter boom — digitalcontentnext.org

Driven in part by the pandemic, last year saw a raft of newspapers and magazines doubling down on newsletters for community development and revenue purposes. But who is reaping rewards, and which aspects aren't living up to the hype?

Publishing ideas to steal: local celebrities, podcasts, and low-cost alternatives — voices.media

Peter shares the best magazine publishing ideas he comes across for you to steal, adapt or reuse. This week, he asks if you've considered getting AC-12 to sell your subscriptions for you, explores how podcasts can make money even with a small number of listens, and suggests you rob the Financial Times (for ideas...not literally...!)

This week's podcast

Media Voices at Cannes 2022 — voices.media

Media Voices co-host Peter Houston went to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France. He caught up with attendees at the festival to find out what publishers and agencies are talking about this summer(clean rooms, cookies and diversity), and how optimistic they are about the next few years. Featuring Brian Morrissey, Dominic Perkins, Jessica Jacobs, James Prudhomme, and more.

4 things we learned about email newsletters from the Digital News Report 2022 — voices.media

Industry attention around newsletters is often focused on the United States, but the Reuters team wanted to know if the hype was reflected elsewhere. “More widely, we wanted to understand more about the appeal of newsletters in general,” Nic Newman wrote. “In what ways can this low-tech and often unfashionable medium help build or support sustainable journalism?”