Eric Schwartzman | New Media and Social Media Communications

Email newsletters are among the most effective channels for online communications, because email is the only channel with a higher adoption rate than search, which is the second most popular online communication channel. As jazzed as we all are about Twitter and Facebook, email and search engines still have greater reach.

So if you’re curious about what it takes to publish a successful email newsletter, I spoke with DailyCandy.com Editor in Chief Dany Levy about the difference between writing for print versus writing for email newsletters, and she had some great advice, which I’ve summarize in this post, or you can hear her yourself by clicking on the preceding link .

According to Dany, here’s what it takes to publish a successful email newsletter:

• Short and to the point – As a writer, you’re up against huge attention deficits on the web. Keep it terse. Don’t waste the user’s time. Brevity is the name of the game.
• Relevant and entertaining – It isn’t enough to be informative. Reward the readers attention with compelling information that really matters to them, instead of you. Give them just the essential facts, and nothing more.
• Think before you link – If exclusivity is your edge, but you’re writing about websites and linking to them, it’s going to be tough to differentiate your email newsletter over time, because people can get to those sites from other sources as well. This is an interesting counterpoint to Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow’s assertion that $125 million dollar acquisition by Comcast by selling ads alongside ultra-hip, lifestyle email newsletters. And even today, while everyone else is focused on Twitter and Facebook, DailyCandy.com remains hugely profitable with a series of local and global email newsletter editions.

So if you’re under the impression that Twitter is wired and email is tired, think again.

Later on this week I’ll be releasing an interview with NY Times Sunday Styles reporter Allen Salkin, with PR pitching tips and information about what he expects to find in your online newsroom. You can subscribe via RSS or Twitter.