In the crowded news landscape, consumers are turning to their email for the latest cycle of current events. Panelists will discuss job opportunities in newsletters and what it takes to start your own successful newsletter. Join us on Tuesday, November 9th at 6:00PM ET on Zoom and hear from leading writers and editors highlight the elements of a successful newsletter, and how they serve and grow their audience.
Presented with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
GABE FLEISHER, FOUNDER, WAKE UP TO POLITICS
Gabe Fleisher’s love for politics and history began at an early age, sparked by following the intrigue of the 2008 presidential election as a six-year-old. In April 2011, his passion turned to action when he began publishing his own daily political email blast and sending it to a lone subscriber: his mom. A decade later, Wake Up To Politics is now sent to 50,000 readers in every U.S. state and dozens of countries around the globe — but its core mission of making politics accessible remains the same.
In May 2019, Gabe was the first journalist to report on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans to run for president, a scoop that earned him nationwide attention and an interview with the mayor himself. In March 2020, he was called on to ask a question of President Joe Biden in the first-ever Zoom press briefing held by a presidential candidate.
During the 2020 election cycle, Gabe hosted the Wake Up To Politics Podcast, a partnership with St. Louis Public Radio. For his work on the podcast, Gabe received the 2020 Horace Mann Friend of Education Award from the Missouri National Education Association. He is also the author of one book, Hear Us Roar, a history of his elementary school, and was Editor-in-Chief of his high school newspaper, The World. Gabe is a recipient of the 2014 Lincoln Forum Student Scholarship and the Kids Voting Missouri Pioneer Award; he was recognized by The Forward as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the United States in 2019 and by Microsoft as a “Person of Action” in 2016. He was also a nominee for Forbes’ 2019 “30 under 30 in media” list. Gabe, 19, is a freshman at Georgetown University in the class of 2024.
KELSI TRINIDAD, MANAGER OF NEWSLETTER STRATEGY, GQ
Kelsi Trinidad is Manager of Newsletter Strategy at GQ. Previously, she was Newsletters Editor at New York Magazine, where she helped launch newsletters including One Great Story, My Week in New York, and are u coming?
She is an alumna of UCLA with a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies, and New York University with a master's degree in Magazine Journalism.
HANNE WINARSKY, HEAD OF WRITER DEVELOPMENT, SUBSTACK
Hanne Winarsky is Head of Writer Development at Substack, where she provides writers with the strategies and support they need to build the Substack publications (and empires) of their dreams. Most recently she was an editorial partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, where she produced and hosted two of their most successful podcasts, the a16z Podcast and Bio Eats World, and produced content for the firm including presentations, events, articles and videos.
Hanne has also been an op-ed editor at the Daily Dot and Timeline, and a senior acquisitions editor at Princeton University Press for literature and art history. In all these roles she has focused on helping experts—whether writers, scientists, academics, or technologists—get their ideas out to the world in the most compelling format and to the broadest audiences.
MODERATOR: CARLO VERSANO, PRODUCER, EDITOR & PODCAST HOST, NEED2KNOW, CHEDDAR
Carlo Versano is the editor of Cheddar's Need2Know daily newsletter and the founder, producer and co-host of the companion Need2Know daily podcast, with a combined audience of 400,000 subscribers. He is an Emmy-winning multi-platform journalist with 15 years of experience in broadcast, digital and audio production. Carlo has worked at Bloomberg, CNBC, NBC News, Univision and, currently, Cheddar, where he appears as an on-air reporter in addition to his Need2Know duties.
He graduated with a degree in Journalism from the University of Richmond and received his Master's in Media Management from The New School. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and newborn daughter.