With increasing competition for your inbox, everyone is looking for an edge, and David Tvrdon at The Fix has a few wonderfully brilliant suggestions from including the name of the sender in the email and possibly trying some emojis - even if you're a serious news organisation.

And we've got a great piece on why you should pay attention to your paywall visibility rate when you're trying to optimise your subscription strategy.

And the UK's Press Gazette asks a serious question: Why hasn't the British local press had more subscription success?

Plus in industry news, the Columbia Journalism Review has a profile of the unrelated Smiths who founded Semafor. And, of course, the Twitter drama continues to fixate media folks. One of the best pieces that I've read about Musk and Twitter is that he is following a standard playbook that he ran at Tesla and SpaceX, make cuts, talk about the threat of bankruptcy and cultivate a culture of hardcore work. (Some might say a culture of commitment, but I think it's just a culture of overwork.)

The sender’s name of your newsletter can make a huge difference in the open rate. Also, should you use emojis in email subjects? - The Fix — thefix.media

When was the last time you tested the sender’s name of your newsletter? Turns out it can make a huge difference, especially if your newsletter is received and read a certain way. Also, why are so few news organisations using emojis in email subjects?

David Tvrdon doesn't just write about media, but he's an operator in his own right so he brings his own experience of using newsletters to convert and retain digital subscribers. He noticed that digital publishers in the US like Axios and Puck sent their newsletters not from the brand but from the author, which is not common amongst legacy publishers. He found that using the author's name increased open rates by 50%. He's got a few other tips from his experience in this great write up.

Why are successful paywalls such a rarity in UK local press? — pressgazette.co.uk

Why aren't paywalls for local news working in the UK? Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford takes a closer look.

This is a really good question. Small digital startups like the Manchester Mill have been able to get people to pay, but some of the larger players, like Reach, have struggled. Dominic Ponsford is asking the right questions, and I would love for someone to research the issue. Is this down to the BBC and the wide availability of good (or at least good enough) free content by the public broadcaster? Or is it due to cuts in local newsgathering by the dominant players so that people don't find the content compelling enough to pay for? In this case, I only have questions, not answers.

I also think that there are two variables that feed into local media success: How much civic capital does a community have? Or put anther way, do people really feel invested in their community? And lastly, how much capital does the community have? Frankly, do people have disposable income to pay for media?

Paywall visibility rate: the essential KPI you should be tracking in your subscription strategy | The Audiencers — theaudiencers.com

Tracking and optimizing both premium content visibility and paywall visibility rate will help move users through the funnel towards subscribing in the future.

We do not suffer from a lack of data but rather sometimes a lack of focus on what data really matters when trying to achieve our editorial and business goals. This is a great piece that highlights a KPI that you might not be looking at - paywall visibility rate.

Subscriptions Still on the Rise at Most Newspapers in the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index | Local News Initiative — localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu

One ray of good news during the Covid pandemic: More U.S. consumers read and subscribed to local news publications.

Some good news, and a good data point for how local newspapers might fare in what most people expect to be a recession in the US.

Industry News: Semafor founders' profile and Twitter

Meet the Smiths - Columbia Journalism Review — www.cjr.org

The partnership that led to Semafor

I love this line: “Semafor, which Politico founder Robert Allbritton calls 'Axios for FT people'".

Elon Musk Is Running Twitter Like a Failing Newspaper Business - Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com

Elon Musk is treating Twitter like a dying newspaper. But first…

“Musk is now throwing around a favorite phrase of the clueless media baron: “citizen journalism.” The way Musk describes his plan to Patch.com up Twitter sounds a lot like what the editor Lewis D'Vorkin helped institute at Forbes. “

Will Twitter Crash? A Look at Current Issues at the App as a Result of Reduced Oversight | Social Media Today — www.socialmediatoday.com

Social Media Today

Not much new here, but they have it all in one place.

How journalists can get verified on Mastodon | Media news — www.journalism.co.uk

PressCheck.org helps you let your followers know that you are who you say you are, like the Twitter blue tick

There are some good guides on how journalists can transition to Mastodon as a hedge against the chaos at Twitter.