Will AI replace newsletter editors?

Why AI struggles to replace this job

• AI cannot authentically replicate a unique personal 'voice' that readers develop a relationship with.
• Curating content based on future-looking 'vibes' or gut feelings is beyond current AI capability.
• AI struggles to understand the specific community inside-jokes and shorthand of niche audiences.
• Forming partnerships and sponsorships for a newsletter requires human-to-human business networking.

Tasks AI could automate

• Aggregating a list of the most popular articles in a specific niche for the week.
• Generating A/B test variations for subject lines to increase open rates.
• Summarizing long-form articles into three-bullet-point takeaways.
• Cleaning and segmenting email lists based on subscriber engagement data.

The 10-year outlook

The number of newsletters will explode, but the number of paid human editors will likely shrink as AI handles the curation. Success will be found in 'personality newsletters' where the human editor is the brand itself. Those who use AI to manage the technical and writing aspects will thrive as solo entrepreneurs.

Common questions