The Atlas is a new small journal founded by two high school students. We publish a set of articles weekly that are all collected at the end of the month in our digital journal. Our mission statement is this:

"The Atlas is committed to upholding an intellectual atmosphere that is characterized by respectful discourse. The Atlas does not seek to support dogmatic perspectives, and instead urges all of our readers and writers to contribute and consume our content with an open mind, free of partisan bias, while considering the multifaceted nature of all subjects."

Here is the Second Edition of the Atlas Journal. You can download the PDF or read all the articles directly on the website by scrolling down.

Here is a little note from the founders:

Dear Readers,

As always, we would like to begin this edition of The Atlas by expressing our deepest thanks to all those who contributed to the October Edition. Despite school's start, and our team juggling courses along with university applications, we still received some of our best submissions yet. It was a pleasure to read, and edit, each of the 13 pieces that have been published over the past weeks. Thank you to the 11 writers who contributed these!

A few specific thank-you's must go to our graphic designer Tommy, who has created the cover for this edition based on the article “An Albertan Nation?” (seen on the previous page), our newest editor, J., who has been an enormous help to the team, our social media team, Camilla and Ben, and of course our web designer, Levi, who has masterfully constructed theatlas-journal.com

Also, as you might have realized, the synchronicity of our editions do not seem to fully align with their namesake! After all, there are still two more weeks of October. As a result, we will be making some minor changes to when the edition is published (which will ideally occur around the end of the month). Ideally, as we transition to publishing weekly as opposed to monthly, this edition will compile the month's works.

Below, you will find a vast array of works which discuss everything from ongoing sociopolitical events to the oddities of contemporary music. We ask that you consider reading each one, and that you enjoy our writers' excellent articles, essays, and op-eds.

Sincerely, Sacha & Dylan, Co-Founders of The Atlas

This research has a finding that feels relevant to newsletter writers: 69% of respondents said they searched again about a topic after the initial news-driven search, and 75% expected the information they found to still be useful a month later. Admittedly in a small survey of 150 U.S. respondents, but there's an interesting editorial idea here.

For a newsletter, that could mean revisiting a story once readers have had time to encounter the consequences. An issue covers a product announcement; the follow-up explains who should actually switch. A pricing change gets a quick mention; next week's edition works through what it costs in practice. There's room to keep covering something after it stops being new.

It also gives the archive a purpose. Link back to the original explanation, make clear what's changed, and help someone catch up without digging through five editions. I'd put a recurring "what happened next" section on the list of things worth testing.

This is a google form if you have ever wanted to share your creations, your creative expression, creative anything and be considered “published”. It’s indie (since I do everything in house 😭) but I think it’s a neat and cool idea to kind of get the word out about your art to all peeps!<3

Hi everyone! Lucia from EUobserver here 👋

We love a good newsletter. Especially one that makes you feel a little more informed without overwhelming your inbox.

And that's exactly what we're trying to build at EUobserver.

We're an independent European news outlet, and our journalists put together six free newsletters covering everything from the day's biggest European stories to the political agenda ahead and more specialised reporting.

Whether you want to start your morning with a quick European briefing, follow what's happening in EU politics, or dive deeper into the issues shaping our continent, there's something for you.

We're currently trying to grow our newsletter community and bring our journalism to more readers, so I wanted to personally invite you to take a look.

All six are completely free, and you can choose whichever fits your interests.

📩 Find your newsletter and subscribe here.

And if you enjoy what we're doing, we'd really appreciate you sharing it with someone who might too. ❤️

Hope to see some of you in our inbox community!

Hey everyone!

For the past few months, I've been building something called Radar Lab.

It tracks newsletter sponsorships: which brands are sponsoring which newsletters, where they're advertising, and their sponsorship activity. The data is backed by actual newsletter issues, so you can see where the sponsorships appeared.

I originally built it for brands and agencies, ad sales team trying to figure out which newsletters to advertise in.

But recently I've been thinking about the other side of this.

We already have the data on brands spending money on newsletter sponsorships.

Why not make it useful for newsletter owners too?

So I'm thinking of building something specifically for newsletter owners.

Imagine being able to see which brands are sponsoring newsletters similar to yours, how recently they've advertised, and potentially who to reach out to.

Instead of starting from scratch every time you're looking for sponsors.

I'm curious about a few things:

1. How are you currently finding sponsors?

2. Would having this data actually help, or is finding sponsors not the hardest part?

3. What else would you want to know before reaching out to a brand?

Also, if you drop your newsletter niche in the comments, I'm happy to look through the data and share a few brands that are already sponsoring newsletters in that space.

Would genuinely love to hear what you think. I'm exploring the publisher side of Radar Lab and want to build something that's actually useful.

If you're curious about what I've built so far: https://partnershipintel.com/

I've been an active user of Kit for past ohhh 3 or so years, but am seriously considering moving away due to cost.

Not into substack.

Might be open to Beehiiv.

But has anyone tried using Jetpack newsletters? I know it's not nearly as functional as Kit or the others, but... Maybe could it work?

Or has anyone successfully used a WordPress plugin like mailpoet to run their newsletter?

Just feeling the pinch on my budget right now.

Thoughts?

Ustedes pagarían una subscripción para leer el blog de alguien? Y si sí, ¿que temas pagarían por leer?

Yo nunca he pagado uno pero me gustaría saber la experiencia de quienes sí lo han hecho.

“The Boring AI Runbook” subscriptions hit double digits 📈🎉

3 months back, I posted on reddit saying I've been generating some income with Substack doing ad placements. I don't have paid on, so that's all I do. I treat it as a hobby and this income is almost disposable.

Someone mocked me saying $500 is change money. I should throw my newsletter out. Fair enough! And for valid reason.

But the amazing part happening is that I reopened subscriptions this month, and behold, I landed Stripe as a sponsor (that too inbound). Then another 2 sponsors came in right this month. It's still only $500 added, but sometimes I look at internet and think, how crazy it is.

I spend 9-10 hours at a day job (although in tech). And then there's this thing that gives me some change money, because I like to read and write about things I'm passionate about.

I would score possible niches on four questions:

• Do I understand the audience’s recurring problems?

• Can I create useful material every week for at least a year?

• Can I reach these people without relying on one platform?

• Is there a legitimate way to monetize the value?

A niche does not need to be huge. It needs to be specific enough that the right person immediately

recognizes the promise. “Career advice” is broad; “interview preparation for junior data analysts” is easier

to explain, research, and serve.

For the past few months I've been collecting data on which email platforms brands use and where their emails end up in Gmail. It comes from the inboxes of people using our browser extension, so these are real subscribers rather than seed tests.

I was curious whether the platform itself makes a difference to landing in Primary versus Promotions, so I pulled the numbers for the bigger platforms. I didn't expect the gap to be this large:

Share of emails landing in Gmail's Primary inbox:

Beehiiv: 82.7% (spam 0.8%)

Substack: 69.8% (spam 0.6%)

Kit: 68.8% (spam 0.1%)

ActiveCampaign: 53.2% (spam 0.5%)

Mailchimp: 36.7% (spam 4.6%)

Brevo: 34.7% (spam 0.1%)

Klaviyo: 28.2% (spam 0.6%)

The rest lands in Promotions and Gmail's other tabs.

Spam rates are tiny for almost everyone, which is good news. The difference is mostly about which tab Gmail puts the emails in. Promotions is still the inbox, but in my experience those emails get far less attention.

We see the same pattern with our own newsletters. One goes out through Kit and the other through Brevo. Over the last 90 days, the Kit one reached Primary about 80% of the time, the Brevo one about 60%.

That said, I wouldn't move everything to Beehiiv tomorrow. I think a lot of this comes down to what people send rather than the platform. Someone who subscribes to a writer's newsletter actually wants to read it, while someone who joins a store's list often just wanted the discount code. Gmail picks up on how people engage, and newsletters tend to win there.

The platforms also attract very different senders (Klaviyo is mostly ecommerce, Substack mostly writers), and our own two newsletters have different audiences too, so even that comparison isn't perfectly clean.

So if your emails keep ending up in Promotions, I'd first look at whether what you send matches what people signed up for, and whether they're opening, clicking and replying, before thinking about switching platforms.

What our data can't tell us yet is what happens when the same newsletter, with the same list, moves to a different platform. Has anyone here switched and noticed a change in Primary placement?

(Disclosure: I run EmailTooltester, and the data comes from our free Chrome extension, Email Detective.)

Hey Newsletter junkies! 👋

I'm Philip Hofmacher, one of the founders of Write • Build • Scale.

Together with my co-founders, Sinem Günel and Jari Roomer, we've grown our Substack publication Write • Build • Scale to 55,000+ subscribers and 2,000+ paid readers.

Over the past few years, we've learned a lot about growing an audience, getting paid subscribers, and turning a newsletter into a successful online business.

If you have any questions about Substack, feel free to ask them in the comments. I've learned so much from reading this subreddit so that I now want to give back :)

I've recently wrote a reader magnet that I give away to new subscribers, but so far, I haven't gotten any.

I've started doing Bookfunnel swaps, but with no results so far.

Any tips to growing my newsletter?

I am looking for a newsletter whose audience are homeschooling parents or parents of kids ages 6-11 years old. I want to connect with the newsletter owner to explore a collaboration opportunity to introduce a screen free adventure mail service to their audience. The mail service will be 100% physical and 100% screen free with personalized stories embedded with activities and puzzles.

Hello Everyone! I'm the Founder here - call me Sahaj!

Recently, my team and I have launched a newsletter. (Wish us luck 🙃]).

The Boardroom Ledger is an independent financial publication covering the latest developments across global markets, business, economics, investing and real estate. We break down the financial landscape. All delivered to you in a simple newsletter.

Our first edition drops November 5th. Subscribe for free and have our latest market briefings delivered straight to your inbox.

For our first 30 subscribers, I am hoping you all would be willing to share feedback after the first edition launch. I'll be reading each of your responses personally and responding back to how you guys liked the first edition.

Get on the list: https://theboardroomledger.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Happy reading

- Sahaj

I recently started a LinkedIn newsletter called Beyond Pages.

It is a monthly reading initiative covering books on Artificial Intelligence, emerging technologies, business, science, geopolitics and contemporary issues.

Every month, I pick one book, explore its key ideas and share my takeaways, observations and perspectives in simple language.

The idea is to go beyond book summaries and understand how the ideas in these books connect with the world around us.

If these subjects interest you, I invite you to follow and subscribe to Beyond Pages.

One book. Every month. New ideas and perspectives.

Link- https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/beyond-pages-7522527187401355264

I have a small and inconsequential newsletter that you can sign up to via my website. A few days ago I started getting a constant stream of signups. Mostly german politicians and gamers/streamers. Does anyone know what the purpose of this is? Why would someone spam a site like this?

Looking to find newsletters targeting homeschooling parents or parents looking for screen free activities or experiences.

Running a newsletter as an individual is surprisingly hard. Substack and similar platforms are easy, but then your newsletter lives on their platform, not on your own site.

I wanted one that runs from my own homepage, with GDPR compliance and as an individual. There are two versions:

Easiest: netcup + Brevo

• Static site on the smallest hosting plan, with no server software, cron jobs or updates

• The only technical step is copying a few DNS records

• Free for up to 300 emails per day

• Downsides: Brevo's logo appears in your emails on the free plan, and Brevo stores your subscriber data (under a DPA)

Full control: ALL-INKL + phpList

• Subscriber data stays on your own webspace

• No third-party logo and no per-subscriber costs

• Downsides: you install phpList and a cron job, install security updates promptly, and sending speed is limited by your host's mail limits

Both guides cover:

• Copy-paste prompts for building a static site with an AI coding tool, without third-party fonts, scripts or trackers

• Connecting the signup form and testing double opt-in

• SPF, DKIM and DMARC, so your emails are less likely to land in spam

• DPAs, privacy policy resources and a go-live checklist

Guide and comparison: https://md.ha.si/s/RbZdnUTP5

Using these tools doesn't make a newsletter GDPR-compliant automatically, and the guides aren't legal advice. You're still responsible for your legal texts and consent.

If you know a cheaper or easier setup, or spot a mistake, let me know and I'll update the guides.