In India, the daily newsletter Splainer drops into subscribers’ inboxes with a round-up of the day’s most important news and events.
Launched in 2020, Splainer targets a broad English-first Indian readership of working professionals, students and more. Women constitute over half of its subscribers.
“We want to make it enjoyable and effortless to be well-informed about what’s happening in the world,” said Lakshmi Chaudhry, founder of Splainer. “Our editorial curation formula is knowledge plus delight, and for us, well-informed doesn’t necessarily mean only news, but [also] the wacky, strange and delightful things happening around the world.”
Splainin’ the point
Each edition of Splainer dedicates space to an explainer called “The Big Story,” which is typically a deep dive into a timely or evergreen issue. This section includes rich context, well-researched data points and arguments, and an analysis of why the story matters.
Readers then navigate to a section titled, “Headlines That Matter,” which includes a round-up of eight to 10 of the most important global headlines. This is followed by the “Sanity Break,” which shares intriguing anecdotes and positive news.
“The way we judge the relevance of a news piece can be subjective, but there are guiding factors,” said Nirmal Bhansali, an assistant news editor at Splainer. “The big factor is this: if we can articulate why a particular piece of news matters to the audience over the course of research, then we include it.”
Choosing what to publish is a ruthless exercise because only so many news stories and events can be included in a single edition. To help with this, each article included in Splainer must pass a “so what?” test to ensure its relevance.
“If a few people said some things, or if a policy is being planned to be implemented, or announcements are taking place about the future, but nothing has changed so far, then we don’t include it,” said Chaudhry. “We keep going back to ask, ‘how does it matter?’ ‘How does it impact the readers?’”
The story behind Splainer
Splainer tries to aggregate information in a way that allows its readers to rely on it daily for a dose of updates – an alternative to subscribing to every niche publication on the internet.
“Unlike algorithms, we don’t believe people are just a bundle of pre-existing beliefs, tastes and preferences,” said Chaudhry. “You may not call yourself a science person, but you could still find certain things fascinating, like how the human brain works. We want to bring that content to you.”
Viewing its readers as multifaceted people capable of holding a diverse range of interests, Splainer also helps them get out of their algorithmic and paywall-driven echo chambers.
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