Capturing the eyes of young women professionals and delivering the news — that’s the goal of a new daily newsletter, The Skimm. Right now it only comes in email. I was turned on to it by one of my students.
It’s an edgy missive, with quips and wit, which doesn’t follow traditional journalism formats but has news at its heart. The business news website Fast company says behind The Skimm are two 20-somethings who produced at NBC News, Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg. They got the idea for the newsletter after repeated queries from their women friends about what was in the news, and how to sound like they knew what was going on because they were too busy to keep up.
Here’s a sample posting:
- WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOU’RE ASKED TO TAKE A SURVEY…
- Usually, I’d say no but you never know what could happen. That’s the idea right now in Turkey, where local elections just took place. Normally local elections aren’t the most exciting events, but the stakes in yesterday’s election were pretty high. The elections were a big test for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ruled for more than a decade and is battling corruption allegations and security leaks, and his party. According to preliminary results, Erdogan’s party came out on top. Erdogan, who has been feeling out a run for president, celebrated by vowing to pursue the “traitors” who have accused him of corruption. Yippee.
I like it. Just waiting for the app to come out. What do you think? And what news ways of getting news are you using? Feel free to comment below.