Growing The Blast

Empowering teams to tell stories.

The Blast is The Texas Tribune’s premium political newsletter, delivering all the details on the inner workings of the Texas legislature to its readers.

In collaboration with the Product team, I provided a design-centered perspective to this project through an in-depth market analysis of other premium newsletters across the country, and recommendations on successful features of other newsletters, in order to enhance the reading experience and help center future communication strategies.

I conducted a market analysis of premium political newsletters in order to inform decision-making regarding features and marketing for The Blast.

My role in this project was a collaboration with The Texas Tribune’s Product Team, led by Darla Cameron. Other stakeholders included Renzo Downey, head writer of The Blast. Jacob Villanueva, the Tribune's Chief Creative Officer, was a major facilitator of this project, connecting me with the Product team and assisting in synthesizing findings to share with stakeholders.

Objective & Team

Methodology

After looking at The Blast User Research and understanding concerns, I looked for similar products on the market. I looked at 13 Premium newsletters: 5 National, 7 on a State level (not all Texas), and 1 City-specific one. I also highlighted one free newsletter that has incredibly valuable research in an engaging format. I looked into costs, affiliations, strengths, and weaknesses.

Highlights + Key Features in Other Products

Following my analysis of each product, several features stood out to me:

  • Punchbowl News: Category/tagging system

    • Briefly introduces topics at the top of the newsletter, and allows reader to scroll to find the section with the most interesting content to them.

  • The Dispatch: Up to Speed

    • Gives readers a quick primer on the latest happenings in government to provide context for the following information.

  • The Dispatch: Notable and Quotable/Within Earshot

    • Gives readers direct quotes from relevant parties

  • The Dispatch: Cutline Contest

    • A really engaging and exciting way for readers to interact with producers of the content. Actual prizes tied to this section of the newsletter.

  • The Texan’s Redacted: Extra Credit

    • Refers readers to external resources if they want to learn more on that issue’s topics.

  • WisPolitics: Today’s Calendar

    • Incentivizes timely reading of issues.

Graphs visualizing how the Blast compares to other newsletters in monthly and annual costs.

Findings + Suggestions

As attention spans dwindle, The Blast needs to be structured in a way that puts the most important information first in an easily digestible format, then encourages subscribers to dig deeper. The Blast already has subsections, but the goals/purpose of each is a bit unclear at the moment. Leading with quick facts and time-sensitive topics will make readers feel that opening the newsletter will immediately provide them with the most essential information, rather than feeling like they have to dig through long blocks of text to get to the things that really matter to them.

There is an opportunity to use images, graphics, and other features to create a more visually driven product. This is something that didn’t really exist in the newsletters I found! There isn’t a need to create a data viz team solely for the newsletter, but giving readers room on the page to rest their eyes while highlighting the most important information is a really valuable consideration. There really isn’t anything like Texas Weekly’s Hotlist, and it might be something worth reintroducing.