By Emma Freer
theSkimm solves all your problems (or at least this one)
Are you an “educated professional who knows enough to know she needs more”? Or at least a pre-professional in the process of being educated who knows this truth about herself? If you answered yes to either of these questions, theSkimm is the answer to your problem.
Founded by two former NBC News producers, Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, theSkimm was successful from its start thanks to positive word-of-mouth and critical acclaim. It has been featured in such publications as Vanity Fair, Forbes, and Refinery 29.
Weisberg and Zakin started theSkimm after being pestered by their friends to provide talking points for dates, job interviews and cocktail parties. As news producers, they were in the business of knowing what was going on in the world. However, for everyone else it seemed staying abreast of current events proved challenging when it was not actually a full-time job.
With so much news available to us through so many platforms (phones, social media, etc.) and with the tacit assumption that we all be up to date all the time, it is near impossible to be well informed about world news. (Not to mention keeping up with all of favorite TV shows.) Gone are the days of skimming the daily newspaper at the breakfast table in order to be a well-informed member of society ready to make small talk about current events.
Thankfully, theSkimm is the modern day equivalent of this positively quaint ritual. Each morning, theSkimm e-mails its newsletter to its healthy following which has grown expotentially since their start-up. From the crisis in Ukraine to the mystery that is Bitcoin, each newsletter condenses the most important and topical news events of the last 24 hours into a quick morning read.
An important element of theSkimm’s success – and its popularity – is its very specific news-delivering voice. theSkimm is not only informative; it is actually entertaining. The newsletter essentially reads as though your best friend, who is both incredibly news savvy and very witty, is telling you what you need to know for the day.
Here’s an example from a newsletter received last month, covering the emergent crisis in Ukraine: ‘The protests have highlighted the struggle over Ukraine’s identity – leaning towards Russia or towards Europe – but the violence was brought to a whole new level yesterday. This mess is not just about Ukraine. It has dragged in the West and Russia and pitted them against each other. Yup, everyone is having the same bad flashback when they hear that.’
In fifty-some words, the Ukrainian crisis has been explained at its most basic level, and you can now speak about it with at least a cursory knowledge when that smug know-it-all tries to best you in your International Relations tutorial.
As university students, we spend hours each week reading about a variety of subjects, most of them removed from reality – or that world outside of academia – by at least a few degrees. Reading international editions of newspapers around the world is neither especially practical nor enjoyable. theSkimm has come to our rescue, having done all the leg work in order to provide us with the most pertinent info in the most condensed package. On top of all this, it is positively snarky – in the best way possible.
Try it, and feel that very satisfying feeling of superiority when you know what’s going on in the world and can speak about it intelligently at just the right moment – like on a date or in front of your parents.
Quick! Sign up here: http://www.theskimm.com/?r=233H7.