Snowmail

Here’s a good use of email. Jon Snow, the anchorman for the Channel 4 News, sends out an afternoon bulletin with a heads-up on the key stories he’ll be covering that evening.

I know lots of stations do this in the US, but Snow’s email is clearly written by the man himself and it isn’t just a promotional tool. Here’s today’s offering: “He’s gone. Stephen Byers of whom we shall no longer be able to say ‘the embattled Transport Secretary’. He has fallen on his sword in a rather dramatic moment in an upstairs room in 10 Downing Street. Cameras were summoned for an undescribed event, the rumour mill churning with such fanciful ideas ranging from Cherie’s 5th pregnancy to a Tony Blair quote ‘I’m off to become a corporate lawyer’. But in the end it was Stephen Byers and an end that came as unexpectedly as his decision not to resign when the original September 11th email row broke.”

It’s a parochial story on the world stage, but I was certainly interested.