“Les bonnes infos” (“The Good News”) is a weekly newsletter that spreads positive information launched on 2020. Its values: optimism and curiosity. It is edited by Bulletin, a French newsletter publisher. Bulletin was created by Jean Abbiateci, former deputy editor-in-chief of the Swiss daily newspaper “Le Temps”. It targets young parents aged 30 to 45 years.
“The Good News” was born from the following observation: the intense fatigue felt by many due to a bombardment of round the clock news; an overflow of often anxiety-provoking stories accentuated by the Covid crisis and the outpoor outrage on social networks. This pain point drove us to build the editorial proposal that is “Les Bonnes Infos“ : inform rather than depress, while not forgoing the rigor of journalism. The idea is to infuse people’s days with a dose of optimism to inspire and restore their taste for news.
In May 2022, 45’000 readers begin their week with this newsletter. It is a mix of curated and original content.
Each edition is divided into different sections. “The Good News” provides portraits and inspiring stories. “The neighbors” invites subscribers to discover remarkable and solidarity-based initiatives elsewhere in Europe. “The ideas box” focuses on a problem and, above all, on existing solutions (the disappearance of local trains, school bullying). “Eye candy” highlights the work of an artist or a photojournalist. “The final word” explains current events through the history of a word. Our sources of inspiration: The Guardian’s The Upside column, The Telegraph’s former Bright Side newsletter and the solutions journalism movement.
Between June 1, 2021 and May 31, 2022, we published 45 new issues. We also published 5 special issues, sometimes in collaboration with other French newsletters (L’intimiste, Bien Urbains). We try to surprise our readers. We are very proud to have produced a 3D bulletin that our readers could see with 3D glasses. The other readers could discover this newsletter in 3G with a system of GIFs. We have also published a solutions journalism special issue on European cities and how to make them more livable.
Between June 1, 2021 and May 31, 2022, we developed the financial model for our newsletter. In March 2022, we launched “The Bulletin Club”, a membership program for our most loyal readers. It now has 500 subscribers and its development is an important issue in the future. We also launched our sponsorship program for advertisers in January 2022. “The Good News” now has regular advertisers.
In April 2022, we published our first book. It’s reverse publishing. This book, “The Dictionary of Extraordinary Words” was inspired by a very popular section of our newsletter: “The final word”. We have sold about 1200 copies of this book, and we have included this book in our membership offering.
This beautifully designed entry takes newsletters to the next level as a standalone product, as opposed to a distribution product. It’s snack-able, modular – well-thought-out, brilliantly executed and a holistic package.
