17 top tech & business newsletters you have to follow

‘Tis (almost) the season of good intentions, lists, gifts and elaborate plans to become better versions of ourselves. And what better way to achieve the latter tour de force than by becoming more savvy about tech & biz trends? Imagine how that would allow you to liven up dinner parties!

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So my early New Year gift to you is a list of my top favorite newsletters, so you can subscribe to them and become You2.0 (or You3.0 but then you’d hoard your data and not share it in conversations and that seems pretty selfish, to be honest), a more perspicacious, wise and enlightened of the 2022 You, whom you’ll lovingly look back to as a distant, friendly, but slightly foolish relative.

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No, no. No need to thank me. Making the world a better place suffices to me.

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Benedict's Newsletter – By Benedict Evans

What they say: What happened in tech that actually mattered, and what did it mean? Once a week, I send an email newsletter to 175,000 people – I pick out the changes and ideas you don’t want to miss in all the noise, and give them context and analysis.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: Evans has been around the block a few times - working in the media and tech industries for 15 years - but I mostly love his ability to turn things upside down and offer a different perspective. For instance, a while ago he introduced the concept of “generative search” which I found really intriguing: “And what (puffs on bong) would it mean to talk about ‘generative search’ - to ask a ML engine to make something rather than searching for it?". Also, every year, he produces a “big” (his words, not mine) presentation exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry. I wish I could tell you when his next one will be but his launches tend to fluctuate: former issues date from November, December, January, February and even May so it might be a while still.

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Subscribe here.

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Signal – the Gzero newsletter

What they say: Save time, be entertained, and make sense of global politics every weekday.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: GZERO Media was founded by American political scientist and author Ian Bremmer who has an interesting focus on global political risk. Bremmer is one of Peter Hinssen’s favorite authors and thinkers. Need I say more? Who does not want to know what Peter Hinssen knows? Am I right? I am, aren’t I?

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Subscribe here. You know you want to.

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Dense Discovery

What they say: A thoughtful weekly newsletter to help you feel inspired, be productive & think critically. Join over 39,000 readers for a free weekly email with fresh discoveries at the intersection of design, technology, sustainability and culture. No buzzwords, hype or FOMO. Useful apps, tools, and websites. Interesting books and accessories. Inspiring art and design projects. Thought-provoking things to read, listen, watch. Long piece + some apps, books, thoughts.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: It’s pretty eclectic, but in a good (nay, great) way. You get a longer intro with some general musings and then bite-sized suggestions for Apps & Sites, Books & Accessories, articles etc.

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Subscribe here.

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The Briefing - by Martin Peers and Jessica Lessin (from The Information)

What they say: Get smarter about the most important stories in tech, media and finance by following Silicon Valley’s most-read executive newsletter.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: Nothing to add, really. Perfect summary by them.

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Subscribe here.

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Platformer - By Casey Newton

What they say: News at the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 5PM Pacific.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: Samesies as above.

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Subscribe here.

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The Daily Crunch – by TechCrunch

What they say: Today’s biggest tech headlines.

Wait, there’s more: They have several other newsletters: about fintech, the week in review, transportation and space.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: The more tired the TechCrunch crew get - for instance, after reporting TechCrunch Disrupt – the funnier they become.

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Subscribe here.

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CNN's Meanwhile in China

What they say: With China rapidly becoming the world’s second superpower, CNN’s reporters in Hong Kong, Beijing and around the world bring you a three-times-a-week update on the latest news you need to know about China’s rise, analysis on what it means for the world, and predictions on what could happen next.

‍Wait, there’s more: CNN has a lot of other newsletters as well. I’m also subscribed to “CNN's Meanwhile in the Middle East” and “CNN's 5 Things”, and there are even more.

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Subscribe here.

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Reuters Technology Roundup

What they say: The latest news and trends in tech.

‍Wait, there’s more: Obviously Reuters has multiple newsletters as well: Reuters Business, Reuters Sustainable Switch, Reuters Daily Briefing and whatever floats your boat.

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Subscribe here.

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Ok. Let’s take a small break

(It’s Friday,for Christ’s sake. Well, it is for me, at the time of writing.)

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Here’s a haiku from online poem generator OpenStreetMap Haiku, which uses your map location and OpenStreetMap data to create randomized poems from a database of coordinate-dependent words. It’s about a place in my street (Not my personal address, because for some reason that did not work. Maybe my house is utterly unpoetic.):

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She looks from the 2nd floor
Fills up with noise
Dry grass

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“Why is this happening”, you ask?
Why is there a weird haiku in the middle of a blog about newsletters

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No reason. Just a little break.
You deserve it.

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Ok. On to the serious stuff again.

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Emerging Tech Brew – By Morning Brew

What they say: Drones, automation, AI, and more. The technologies that will shape the future of business, all in one newsletter.

‍Wait, there’s more: As Morning Brew offers about a gazillion themed newsletters, you’ll surely find something you like there. Unless you’re a hater. Don’t be, though. Be a lover. Make the world a more beautiful place. This is their menu, strictly for lovers.

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• CFO Brew: your go-to source forglobal finance insights
• Future Social: the Brew's take on the world of social media
• HR Brew: analysis of the employee-employer relationship
• IT Brew: moving business forward; innovation analysis for the CTO, CIO & every IT pro in-between
• Marketing Brew: the buzziest happenings in marketing and advertising
• Retail Brew: retail trends fromDTC to "buy now, pay later"

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Subscribe here.

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CBInsights newsletter

What they say: The newsletter that makes you smart about tech.

‍Wait, there’s more: Here too, a lot of newsletter “muchness”: they also have editions about retail, healthcare, blockchain and fintech.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: If you want to be revered for your killer graph skilz, this is a great place of inspiration. People just loooove statistics and graphs and CBInsights has some ‘especímenes fantásticos’. Posting these top babies will make you a LinkedIn star.

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Subscribe here for more graaaaphs.

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Stratechery – By Ben Thompson

What they say: Stratechery provides analysis of the strategy and business side of technology and media, and the impact of technology on society. Weekly Articles are free, while three Daily Updates a week are for subscribers only.

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Some background history (Thank you, sweet sweet Wikipedia.): American business, technology, and media analyst Ben Thompson launched Stratechery as a blog while still a Microsoft employee, and in April 2014 devoted himself to the site full-time, operating on a "freemium" subscription model. By 2017, Recode described Stratechery as having pioneered the paid newsletter business model. The founders of Substack, a newsletter platform launched in 2018, called Thompson a major inspiration for their project.

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Subscribe here. I mean, this is internet history. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that? Only the haters.

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TLDR

What they say: Keep Up With Tech in 5 Min: Get our free, daily newsletter with the most interesting stories in startups, tech and coding!

Wait, there’s more: For all you Web3 nutters as there (and I mean that as a term of endearment), there is also TLDR Crypto.

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Some background history: TL;DR or tl;dr, is apparently short for "too long; didn't read", internet slang to say that some text being replied to has been ignored because of its length. It is also used to introduce a summary of an online post or news article. The phrase dates back to at least 2002, and was added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online in 2013. (Again, thanks Wikepedia.) I just want to add this: YOU CAN REPLY WITH TL;DR TO A LONG E-MAIL? PEOPLE HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT BEING ARRESTED? WHY HAS NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THIS?

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Some additional thoughts by moi: 5 minutes to keep up with tech: how awesome is that, man? But seriously, some parts are a bit more technical, which is not for everybody (Me, I am literally “everybody” in that phrase). But there is a lot of really interesting bite-sized info to help you keep up with all things tech.

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Subscribe here.

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Exponential View - by Azeem Azhar

What they say: Exponential View is your weekly, trusted, intellectually-curious look into the near future of technology, political economy, startups & innovation.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: If your eyes are lazier than your ears, there’s also Azhar’s podcast Exponential View where he interviews leading thinkers and practitioners. He’s on a (temporary?) break since June of this year, but let that not withhold you to check it anyway.

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Subscribe here.

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Geekout - By Matt Navarra

What they say: The World's Most Useful Newsletter for Social Media Managers

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Some additional thoughts by moi: Even if you’re not a Social Media Manager, it’s still a great source of digestible information about what all the big tech moguls are up to. Navarra’s understandably having a field day with all things Twitter and Elon, currently.

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Subscribe here.

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Chaos & Amazement - By Clo Willaerts

What they say: Weekly newsletter about the impact of digital technology on our daily lives.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: Great (and fun!) weekly curation of interesting tech articles, tweets and overall internet weirdness. Fellow Belgian. Go Brussels, Ghent, and whatnot! Also: a woman! Why am I saying that (and making it weird)?: I found very few lady tech & biz newsletter writers/curators out there (obviously the big media like Reuters, TechCrunch etc. have women journalists, but few seem to have newsletters of their own) so hit me up if you know any others! (I used to be a lady tech & biz newsletter writer once, but it’s been a minute. I might go back to writing one day. Or I mightn’t.)

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Subscribe here.

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Exploding topics

What they say: Find trending topics before they take off - Each week, we'll send you our best Exploding Topics. Plus, expert insight and analysis.

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Some additional thoughts by moi: Interesting that they always position a trend – like Silvopasture – inside a meta trend – Regenerative Agriculture in this case. Some trends like “Interdental brushes” - apparently designed to clean hard-to-reach pieces of food and plaque between teeth – interest me less, personally, as does the “DTC Oral Care meta trend” of which this is a part. But that’s just me. Maybe you are loco about dental care. Maybe your favorite t-shirt says “Teeth are life”. Maybe you have been looking for shoes like these all your life. Who am I to judge?

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Subscribe here, to know more about returnship, Caffeine eye cream and sensory socks.

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The – glorious - nexxworks newsletter

Hahaaaaa! All of the above was just a trap to get you here! Consider yourself mightily fooled, but in the most loving of ways. This was all a (quite elaborate) ploy to get you to subscribe to our awesome nexxworks newsletter with pieces by Moi, Peter Hinssen (Ian Bremmer’s Number One Fan, but not in a creepy way, like Cathy Bates in Misery), Steven Van Belleghem, Rik Vera, Pascal Coppens, Nancy Rademaker, Ken Hughes, David Burkus, Laëtitia Vitaud, Heather E. McGowan, Mieke De Ketelaere and many, many more. Sorry to have misused your trust. Really. But you know what, just do it. Just suuuubscriiiibe. It will be awesome. You’ll be friends for life with the joyous nexxworks bunch.

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Suuuuuuuubscriiiiiiiiiibe heeeeeeeere. Dooooo iiiit. It wiiiil maaaake you smaaaaaarteeeeeeer. (Yes. I’m trying to hypnotize you.)