Ramblings about newslettering

[ziasudra]

skuf has an interesting poll here about fandom newsletters. I read the fill-in answers and the anonymous discussion threads with interest, and noticed that a reoccurring "complaint" seems to be newsletters tend to favor toward certain things, be they genres, pairings, or overall bias in reccing.

This got me thinking — and in fact I've had thoughts about newslettering for a long time now (and was great to get to talk about this with other fellow newsletter editors at r_becca's newsletter roundtable at Phoenix Rising) — why do people assume newsletter editors have the time to read every single fandom LJ account in the intarwebs? I'm glad the daily_snitch is not a rec newsletter, because I simply don't have the time to read all the fics that are posted in a day, never mind sifting through them to select recs. But even doing the meta/news/non-fic links alone, each issue takes me hours do compile. I almost always (barring RL busyness) go out of my way to look for links outside of reading my own flist or the Snitch's watcher journal. But I'm just one person, I can't know that someone who posts about RL stuff 99% of the time just happens to post something fannish and linkable today, and oops I missed it but instead linked to posts by "popular" LJers or slashers.

I've said this before, and would probably say it again in the future: if you see something that might be of interest, e-mail the links/recs/suggestions to the appropriate newsletter! Seriously, newsletter editors don't bite. In fact, every single one of them that I've met has been of the nicest group of HP fans I've had the pleasure to get to know.

</rant> (not directed against anyone in particular; in fact, I'm feeling more amused than annoyed)

Comments

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

The Snitch is news. As I understand it, it posts links to actual Potter news outside of lj, or discussion that is considered interesting (the key words are considered, and interesting). Fics only get "hot recced" if there are umpteen recs all over lj for one. Snitch is NOT a fic list! Everyone should know that. Hogwarts Today and the Quibbler Report ARE. As are the character specific newsies. Not the Snitch.

[ziasudra-fic.livejournal.com]

Yup, you're correct. The Snitch does meta, news, and anything noteworthy related to HP-themed comms and/or activities.

And I really like how the Snitch, Hogwarts Today, the Quibbler Report, and other pairing-specific newsletters can happily coexist because all serve slightly different purposes within a very large fandom. I'm one of those people who follows lots and lots of newsletters (probably too much for my own good, heh) and I love them all :)