Behind Thurrott.com: Newsletters

Taking over this business last year was scary, and while there are still difficulties, some key partners have made all the difference. Robert and his team have addressed our technical issues quickly and without drama, and have proactively driven improvements to the site that I wouldn’t have even suggested. OpenWeb has dramatically improved comment moderation, giving me back hours every day, letting me focus on content creation. And then there are the newsletters: JR Raphael and his team have transformed what used to be a pair of in-house newsletters into something truly special. And I am overdue in expressing how happy I am with their work, and with our ongoing partnership.

We quietly transitioned the business from George and BWW Media Group to what’s called Thurrott LLC one year ago this month. We used the time between the legal transition and my announcement last July to work through what first felt like an endless series of issues, and I still smile when I think of this time and how lucky we were to have partnered with George previously on Thurrott.com: He did not want to leave us hanging, and he selflessly assisted at every step along the way. He still does, whenever I have questions. And I have so many questions.

You’ll never really know the full extent of his helpfulness, but one of the many things he did for us, and kept doing well past the original end-date, was to keep our old newsletters going, and at his expense, until we were ready to move on. The primary sticking point for my wife and me, and the tiny business we inherited, was always the cost: Email newsletters are expensive, and we were sending out one newsletter each day, and a Premium newsletter each week, to tens of thousands of readers each. I still struggle with many business-related tasks, but I can do basic math. And each time I researched a potential solution, I came up short. There was just no way we could afford this.

I had just about resolved to simply give up on the newsletters when Lisa Laporte, the CEO of TWiT and a person I trust explicitly in business-related matters, made a recommendation when I reached out to her with some questions. JR Raphael, who I knew and respected from his years writing for Computerworld, had turned an Android email newsletter into a successful business. Perhaps he would be interested in helping Thurrott.com do the same?

He would. And the resulting partnership could not have worked out better.

JR is one of those people I feel like I’ve known for years, though we didn’t really meet until Lisa made the connection. But we hit it off immediately, and he was intrigued by the possibility of partnering with us. Over a period of weeks, we went back and forth to figure out what that might look like, and JR offered us various options, turning what had seemed like an impossibility into a more flexible future that could benefit us both. In the end, we mutually agreed that his company, The Intelligence, would create a Windows-focused newsletter called Windows Intelligence that would be offered as part of a family of newsletter offerings that also includes Android Intelligence, Cool Tools, and Top Tips.

Best of all, JR was somehow able to convince Chris Hoffman of How-To Geek fame to join as the talent behind Windows Intelligence. I still remember exactly where I was when I heard this news, and I was then, as I am now, overjoyed to have Chris onboard. As with JR, he’s someone I feel like I’ve known for years, and we finally did meet in person, at last September’s Microsoft event in New York. But I knew last summer that I was going to love this newsletter, as would any reader of Thurrott.com. And now that we have several months of experience behind us, I feel even better about it.

I hope and assume that you do as well, since many former Thurrott.com newsletter subscribers went on to subscribe to Windows Intelligence, and to Android Intelligence and the other newsletters as well. But for those who were perhaps unsure of this change or unaware of the quality of these publications, it’s time to take another look. Chris and JR work tirelessly on the content that appears in these newsletters, while their colleague Rebecca Linke toils behind the scenes on marketing and partnerships. They’re a great team, and we’re always happy to catch up with them and hash out new ideas in our regular meetings.

As noted, The Intelligence publishes four newsletters each week, and they’re all free, and subscribers can choose which to receive. Android Intelligence and Windows Intelligence go out each Friday, with Top Tips arriving on Monday and Cool Tools each Wednesday. The flagship Android and Windows newsletters share the same strong formats, with 3 things to know and 3 things to try each week, plus something fun. And, of course, Windows Intelligence features content from Thurrott.com as well. The emphasis here is on practicality: You will learn something new in each newsletter, sometimes several somethings, and there is no fluff, no wasting of your time. I strongly recommend checking them out.

But that’s always been the case. Today, I have some news as well.

Intelligence Insider and the mega-bundle

As we do with Thurrott Premium, The Intelligence offers an optional paid subscription, called Intelligence Insider, for those who value their high-quality content and community and wish to support that work. Intelligence Insider comes in three memberships tiers, Genius at $55 per year, Prodigy at $95 per year, and Sage for $250 per year. And each offers various perks, like an ad-free web experience. At the Prodigy level, you get a searchable tips treasury, Insider Superguides, and more.

I mention this here for two reasons. One, these memberships are gated, and The Intelligence is running a promotion right now in which Thurrott.com subscribers can join Intelligence Insider Prodigy for half off for the first year, or $47.50. And two, I am perhaps understandably especially excited about a mega-bundle they also offer that combines Thurrott Premium and Intelligence Insider Prodigy for just $99 per year. That is, for the price of just Intelligence Insider, you get that and Thurrott Premium.

If you’re already getting Windows Intelligence, you will be emailed about the half-off Intelligence Insider promotion, which runs through Sunday, March 31. If not, please head over to The Intelligence and sign-up. Again, it’s free. But the real reason to sign-up is for all the high-quality content. You won’t be disappointed.

New Thurrott Premium mailing

I am also happy to announce that we will soon spin up a new Thurrott Premium newsletter of sorts. Not to replace Windows Intelligence in any way, but rather to provide Premium subscribers with a perk that some feel was taken away from them when we transitioned the ownership of the site.

As you may recall, we used to send out a Thurrott Premium newsletter each Monday that contained my From the Editor’s Desk column and a few links to recent Premium posts. I felt that moving the column to the website made sense—indeed, one of the failings of this newsletter is that years of these columns were never published on the web—and made up for the newsletter disappearing. But we’ve heard repeatedly from Premium members that they miss it.

We discussed this issue with JR and the team at The Intelligence, and I wasn’t surprised that they were happy to accommodate us and offered us various options. That’s just who they are. But in speaking with Robert and the web team, we were reminded of a separate, more sobering issue, one that was retroactively obvious: In giving up our in-house newsletters last year, a decision we don’t regret in the slightest, we also gave up our ability to reach out directly to our own customers. Not just Premium members, but also the broader reader base when we want to have sales and other promotions.

And that isn’t something I could ask of JR and The Intelligence, it’s just too much. And so we—by which I mean my wife—OKed the one-time expense of building out a basic emailing capability in-house. Which Robert then delivered in record time. We don’t have any immediate plans for a sale per se, but I would like to begin emailing Premium members again each week soon. Doing so on Mondays again feels right.

To be clear, this new mailing will not include any unique content. It will have my weekly From the Editor’s Desk column—which, yes, will still appear on the website as well—and blurbs for the past week’s Premium posts. It’s a way for Premium subscribers to catch up on the Premium content I’ve created each week, and as an alternative to revisiting the site occasionally to find that.

I’ll let you know when that’s ready, but I feel that this new mailing will address a need. Either way, please let me know what you think.

Thanks!

–Paul