Content discovery is a chore for both creator and consumer. Newsletter consumers want to find interesting content and writers to follow. Newsletter creators want to find their audience and connect with interested readers.

For many of us, newsletter discovery relies on some combination of word-of-mouth recommendations, active searching, and a bit of serendipity.

I’ve written about the content discovery problem from the perspective of a podcast listener (see: Resources for Discovering New Podcasts and  The Ultimate List of Podcast Newsletters for Podcast Recommendations and Discovery).

As both a creator and consumer of newsletters, I’m seeing the same discovery challenges I've encountered in podcasting. In fact, I’d argue that the newsletter discovery problem is even more problematic; at least podcasts have decent online communities and engaging recommendation engines addressing this problem.

When it comes to newsletters, there’s a dearth of discovery tools. For instance, Reddit features several bustling podcast subreddits with daily threads and conversations about new programs, recommendations, and general podcast news (/r/podcasts being the standout example). By comparison, the newsletter subreddits are sparsely populated with far less activity (example: /r/newsletters and /r/substack).

Newsletter directories are one of the few bright spots I've found for newsletter discovery. I’m talking about basic listings of links with brief descriptions. These sites also offer rudimentary search and category tagging. This is circa 1990’s stuff, but it’s the best we’ve got for now.

Most blog articles about newsletter directories offer a single aggregate listing of resources. This isn't good enough for me. Not all directories are created equal. Some are big, some are small, and others focus only on specific topics (and I've taken care to only link to active directories). Accordingly, I’ve grouped the listings below into 4 different categories:

1. Big General Interest Newsletter Directories (> 250 listings).
2. Small General Interest Newsletter Directories (< 250 listings).
3. Newsletter Publishing Platform Directories (e.g. Revue and Substack).
4. Niche Topic Newsletter Directories (e.g. tech newsletters).

I leave it to newsletter creators and consumers to determine which category best suits their individual needs. I'm partial to the directories that incorporate additional information or curatorial angles into the mix. For instance, Newsletter Stack's curatorial collections let you peer into other newsletter enthusiasts' subscription lists. Similarly, Letterlist's collection is small, but features high-quality publications (so you know you're getting the very best of the best from the medium).

Big General Interest Newsletter Directories

Small General Interest Newsletter Directories

Newsletter Publishing Platform Directories

Niche Topic Newsletter Directories

Am I missing your favorite listing site? Is my information out-of-date? Let me know.