11 PR and communications lessons from theSkimm

Why is this e-newsletter winning fans in internal and external comms? Start with its witty style. Plus, there’s that vital news about a woman who found a rat sewn up in her Zara dress.

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If you caught a recent international story in USA Today, you would have found it topped by a traditional headline: “Obama urges Trump not to cut deals with Russia.”

If you got your news from an email newsletter called theSkimm, the story was introduced more obliquely—even though it linked to the same USA Today piece:

WHAT TO SAY TO YOUR FRIEND WHO WANTS TO GO SKYDIVING FOR HER BIRTHDAY…

Be careful. That’s what President Obama is telling President-elect Donald Trump when it comes to dealing with Russia. Obama’s been on his final world tour…

TheSkimm’s off-beat, wry approach is winning fans among communicators, both internal and external. After hearing from several of them, I rounded up a few lessons from theSkimm.

Here’s what its communicator fans told me:

1. Simplify complexity.

Kaitlin Bitting, a longtime subscriber to TheSkimm, says she is impressed by the authors’ ability to make complex subjects more relatable, particularly through the section headers.

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