Email rides again as media targets Generation Z

Image by rieo from Pixabay.

Move over hype about new social media channels. It’s email that is back at the front of the queue as the Huffington Post looks to target Generation Z, building brand loyalty with an audience that hasn’t yet set a lifetime of habits as to its preferred news sources.

Launching on Monday, The Tea email newsletter will offer exclusive weekly interviews with celebrities. It’s also part of a wider trend for email newsletters, often based on the insight that what appeals most to Generation Z is the direct supply of interesting or entertaining content, rather than an appeal to join in splurging about what you’ve been up to on public social media platforms.

That’s an approach which is also paying dividends for publishers aiming at other audiences too, such as the tight grip which early morning email digests from the likes of The Times’s Red Box and the Financial Times have on public affairs audiences. Being featured by Red Box editor Matt Chorley in one of his emails gets you to influential political audiences in a way that getting a thumbs up on YouTube doesn’t.

There’s a lot of life in email yet.