Episode 35: Dave Pell from NextDraft

The Nik Hawks Show

"I never thought I would look forward to getting an email again."

Dave is a news junkie and the author of daily email newsletter NextDraft, which he describes as a "modern day news column". He organizes the newsletter into the 10 most fascinating news items of the day, works on it for 3-4 hours in the morning and blasts it out around 1 pm PST. Dave is famous for having 75 tabs open at any one time as he scours the net for news every day.

"I lock in pretty hard and open up my laptop, not moving a ton other than getting coffee or water for about 3 or 4 hours."

The NextDraft perspective comes from being very well read along with being both curious and horrified by humanity, as well as offering varying perspectives on any given story. If you're looking for a daily wrap up of the most day's most fascinating stories, NextDraft is a fantastic place to start.

The real power of NextDraft comes from Dave's personality; when you read it every day it feels like Dave wrote the email just for you and not for the 75,000 email subscribers on his list plus the 120,000 NextDraft app users. Among those users are counted some of the most powerful and plugged in journalists out there, making NextDraft not just a "repeater station" but much more of a high signal to noise operation than you'd normally find.

"What NextDraft does is slow the news down and deliver news from a perspective you can learn to trust."

Having always wanted to be part of the news business and the media industry, Dave says NextDraft is a joy to write and that shows in every word he types in.

In this interview, Dave talks about the genesis of one of the most popular email newsletters on the net, how much feedback he gets, and what he's proudest of.

Not only is this podcast well worth a listen, this is an email newsletter worth signing up for.

Cheers,

Nik & the PT Crew