It was only at the beginning of 2021 that Facebook and Twitter announced their intention to enter the newsletter business. Now the next big tech player is joining in: Google wants to take off with the Museletter feature. The focus here is on a simple structure.
After Twitter and Facebook, Google now also wants to enter the newsletter business in a big way. In January 2021, Facebook announced that it was working on a newsletter tool for independent authors. The project called Facebook Bulletin was then launched in the summer for creators and journalists.
Also in January 2021, it was Twitter that announced its newsletter efforts. The short messaging service wants to become a better home for author:ins with the acquisition of the Dutch newsletter service Revue.
The plans around Google’s Museletter
So now Google also wants to offer a newsletter service. The tool Museletter comes from Google’s incubator team Area 120 and is linked to Google Drive.
Museletter enables users to create a public profile for Google Drive. The documents created or stored here, such as spreadsheets, presentations or photos, can then be distributed directly via Drive.
Users can choose whether to share their content with their community via a blog or via a newsletter. The Museletter feature also allows users to distribute their content directly to their audience via their mailing lists.
Google implements analytics and monetization
Google also offers the option of tracking performance via Engagement Analytics.
Monetization of newsletters will also be possible. Thus, users:inside can distribute their Museletters as paid subscriptions. However, they also have the choice of monetizing only a portion. This could result in a combination of free and paid subscriptions.
For now, the Museletter will be free – and stay that way. But Google is also working on a premium version, he said, which would then enable custom domains or welcome emails, among other things.
Newsletter push is no wonder
The efforts of the tech giants come as no great surprise. True, newsletters are a time-honored tool in the industry. But as capabilities increase, so do their popularity.
In 2019, 19 percent of respondents to a survey said they receive an average of more than 20 newsletters in a week. It’s not unlikely that this number has seen significant growth to date.
And newsletters with actual news content are also on the rise among decision-makers. The Hamburg PR agency Ms. Wenk determined in a survey that newsletters are the most important source of information for this group of people.
In this context, more than half (53 percent) of the respondents stated that they obtain information via e-mail newsletters. A significant increase compared to 2019, where the figure was still 35 percent.
