Newsletter Changes at Thurrott.com

If you subscribe to the newsletters created by our partners at The Intelligence, you have seen that there are some changes coming. But either way, that means a few changes here at Thurrott.com as well.

As you may recall, I partnered with JR Raphael and his team at the Intelligence after I took over Thurrott.com. At the time, this made sense for all kinds of reasons, including financial: I wouldn’t need to pay for a service or an employee to create our newsletters.

Saving money is nice and all, but what put this over the top was the people. I was happy to finally get to know JR, having been a fan of his writing for more years than I can remember. But my wife and I quickly came to understand and appreciate the integrity and honesty that JR and his small team brought to this partnership. And And when JR hired Chris Hoffman to create the Windows Intelligence newsletter, I was over the moon.

Chris was the perfect choice. And he still is. He’s one of just a handful of people who write about Windows who I trust and respect. He has the experience and the know-how, but he can also write, and write well. And while I know there were reservations in the audience here when I handed over the newsletter reins to The Intelligence–I’m as change averse as you are, so I get it–I also knew that they would win you over. JR with Android Intelligence and Chris with Windows Intelligence.

Well, things are changing. This is sad, of course. But it’s also exciting in some ways because Chris is carrying forward with a new Windows newsletter of his own. This will be weekly, like Windows Intelligence, but also shorter, more streamlined, and in Chris’s own style. I wish I could say more, but Chris is still working through the details, and he has until mid-August to figure it all out. The last installment of Windows Intelligence will be published on Friday, August 15.

We’ll have more information soon. All I can say for now is what I’m doing.

And that is:

I will continue to partner with Chris on his weekly Windows newsletter. We’ve spoken a bit about this, but we’d also like to do more active collaboration, and so we’ll see what happens there. But this week, you can see Chris and me together on Windows Weekly, as Richard is away on vacation with his wife. I suspect that Chris may have more to say then.

I will reactivate the Thurrott Premium newsletter. This is something I’ve meant to do for a long time, and we do get get occasional support emails about it. I will post more about this soon, mostly because I want your feedback. But this will be most likely be weekly as well, aimed primarily at Premium members, of course, but also for those readers who may be interested in joining Premium.

I will create a new newsletter landing page on Thurrott.com. This will give us an obvious way to promote the new newsletters but also to link to The Intelligence and their work as well. I really do love those guys and enjoy their content, and I think many Thurrott.com readers do as well.

We removed the pop-up ad. As you know, and as some have complained, we were displaying a Windows Intelligence pop-up on the site once per month to drive subscriptions. This was annoying to some, for obvious reasons, but we tried to implement it in a way that was as non-disruptive as possible. But there is one way it could be even less disruptive. And so I asked Robert to remove the pop-up, which he did last week.

If you have any questions or comments about this, especially the Premium newsletter, please let me know.

Thanks!

Paul