Why would I read in my Inbox?

As a result, I can think of no worse place to receive the great array of email newsletters out there today.

Further, I think it reveals something about the nature of how marketers often see the world, and dilute value instead of concentrating or adding to it.

Personally, I tend to still make RSS the core of my news schedule each morning.

Yes, it’s unfashionable, but my “newspaper” folder give me the best of blogs like Daring Fireball, Ben Thompson’s Stratechery and Charles Arthur’s Overspill in one place.

Meanwhile, I can flick to “work sources”, including places like TechCrunch and RSS feeds for key Google Search queries.

But The Overspill in particular feels like it shows the future I’m most interested in.

It lists stories in the usual manner, but pulls out a key few paragraphs and adds a little commentary in each case.

It’s not too much, not too little – and it adds value, often with a context that you only get from observing the industry over time as Charles has.

Too many other newsletters can feel like just lists of links – and if I wanted those, I could probably just trawl Nuzzel and see what the most common stories are from my network.

It feels not dissimilar from the process I remember seeing in Twitter over the last decade or so:

• Early on there was a small group of genuinely interested parties sharing stories when they had something to add.
• The masses began to observe and consume this. Then they realised the power to be had by emulating it.
• But something in the signal is diluted. So you end up with masses sharing the same stories, echoing days late to build their “professional profile”, and adding nothing.

There’s the key point for me: Add something, or do nothing.

Worse, you get the feeling that sometimes a lot of effort and energy is being spent collecting these stories together to share.

Sharing alone is not enough. And yet, often it’s the only part that marketers have a sense for.

Once more, we see an argument to stop emulating journalists, or paying them a pittance to phone in wet marketing garbage – and instead, put the ball back in their court.

For just the price of the time you are spending on one monthly newsletter, you could probably keep a freelancer supported instead.

Yes, that’s a schlocky parody of hard sell charity adverts.

But the reality is, the longer brands keep on pretending to have a sense of journalism and real editorial value, the closer everyone gets to not being able to tell the difference anymore.

I hope avoiding that outcome is one cause we can all subscribe to.