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Templates · Writing & publishing

Newsletter issue template

For a weekly or monthly issue to subscribers. Origin: The email newsletter format as practised by Morning Brew, Lenny's Newsletter, Stratechery and Substack's leading writers: one issue, one main idea, a fixed set of sections readers learn to expect.

Start from this templateFree, no account needed. The blank is written with guidance in each section, ready to fill in.

Sections

  1. Subject line and preview text
  2. Opener (one personal paragraph)
  3. The main piece
  4. Quick hits (three to five links with one line each)
  5. A recommendation or reader question
  6. Sign-off with one ask

How a tough reader scores it

When you score a draft against this format, the Critic evaluates this newsletter issue. The weights add up to 100; the fixes for the weakest criteria arrive as cards in the editor.

CriterionWeight
Subject line and preview text earn the open without tricks15
The opener sounds like a person and leads into the main piece15
The main piece has one idea and one takeaway25
Quick hits each give a reason to click15
The fixed sections are all present in their usual place15
One clear ask at the end, and the whole reads in five minutes15

How it works in SecondPen.ai

Open the template and the editor writes the blank once, with a line of guidance under each heading that you delete as you fill it in. Write your abstract and the editor names the format it reads like. Ask for a document with a slash command and it offers to start from the matching format. When the draft is ready, the Critic scores it against the criteria above, the way this format's toughest reader would, and the three highest-leverage fixes become Editor cards.

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