“I’ve always viewed journalism as a way to connect people,” says Gal Tziperman Lotan, writer of GBH Daily , the newly launched weekday newsletter keeping readers in the loop on the most important stories—from up and down the Green Line to around the globe—plus can’t-miss events and programs, ways to connect, and more. An iteration of GBH News’ prior newsletter, The Wake-Up, GBH Daily’s mission is simple: inform, engage, and ultimately, “help people have better conversations as they go about their days.”
After a 10-year career in breaking news at The Boston Globe and Orlando Sentinel, Tziperman Lotan has shifted focus to producing GBH’s Morning Edition and newsletter writing.
The challenges of producing a daily newsletter are, of course, manifold. “It’s an overwhelming time to be a news consumer,” Tziperman Lotan admits, “and we’re very aware that a lot of people have email fatigue.”
But the opportunities and impact that accompany the daily newsletter format are just as plentiful.
We sat down with the reporter behind GBH’s newest newsletter to talk about her process, the stories she relishes sharing, and what readers can expect from GBH Daily going forward.
You spent the first part of your career covering breaking news—specifically, crime and the legal system. How do you think that reporting background informs your approach to the newsletter?
When I came to GBH, I was looking to consider more strategically how people get their news and how we can make it more accessible. As a reporter, I got very used to thinking about news from an audience perspective, so I think it just involves using those muscles I developed as a reporter to always foreground what people need to know about, how it will affect their lives and the lives of those around them.
What are daily newsletters uniquely equipped to cover or address?
Well, something I am really happy to be able to do is to give people an overview of a handful of topics in a way that’s really digestible. What’s great about an email newsletter as a way to consume news is that it’s got a beginning, middle, and end. It’s not an endless doom-scroll. I think it feels more manageable in that way.
Moreover, we’ve been trying to focus on what’s happening locally: less at the Washington level and more at the Beacon Hill, city hall, or town meeting level. And we’re very interested in hearing from our audience—we often run surveys for our readers because the best way to find out what people care about is to just ask them directly.
What have been some of the challenges of switching to the daily format?
With so much going on in the world, sometimes people have an inclination to just shut down and tune out of the news. And I don’t begrudge anybody for that; I completely understand the instinct.
But I do think it’s important to know what’s going on in your community, right? I think it helps us be better neighbors. That’s what I find really meaningful about this work: the opportunity to introduce readers, every day, to what the people around them—the next street, the next neighborhood, the next town over—are going through.
These are stories that people might otherwise not get a chance to hear. And with the help of our outstanding team at GBH News, who is so knowledgeable and does incredible reporting on a wide range of relevant topics, I get to share with our audience this really powerful window reflecting the lives of communities and people around us.
From ICE agents in East Boston to affordable housing in Mattapan, the newsletter does a great job of covering timely, important local stories. What are some of your favorite pieces you’ve had the chance to feature so far?
We kicked off the newsletter with a week-long series from Sam Turken , GBH News’ Worcester reporter, who wrote about why it’s so hard to build housing in Massachusetts . And he went through the process, breaking down each step from finding land to making blueprints, getting through the zoning process , and actually building. From there, he distilled in layperson’s terms why rent is so expensive, why houses keep selling for so much, and how it affects the average reader.
We also used it as an opportunity to connect with our audience and ask, “If you could have power over the housing power in Massachusetts, what would you change?” We heard from a lot of people with really great ideas who clearly care really deeply about this issue and think about it a lot. It was wonderful to tap into that wealth of knowledge that we have in our audience.
What are your long-term goals for the newsletter?
I hope that people feel connected to it, that it speaks to peoples’ actual lives, and they see themselves and their communities reflected in it.
So often, I’m in awe of my coworkers at GBH—their ability to show how big, abstract forces affect people and how individuals’ stories are part of these larger shifts and movements. That’s something I’m trying to capture in the newsletter.
