In March 2025, Axios reported that Ziff Davis was buying theSkimm through its Everyday Health Group. The newsletter that Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin started in 2012 had about 5 million subscribers across its email products at the time, down from earlier counts above 7 million, and it was joining a portfolio that Everyday Health said reached more than 5 million women, mostly millennial and Gen X.
That deal tells you a lot about how to get featured in the Skimm today. It is no longer just a scrappy daily news brief. It is a set of newsletters, including Daily Skimm, Skimm Money, Skimm Shopping, Skimm Well, Skimm Parenting and the SKM Report, sitting inside one of the larger digital media companies in the US, with a health and wellness parent and a shopping business that depends on recommending products readers actually buy.
For consumer brands, that is the opening. This guide covers which parts of theSkimm can feature you, what earns a mention, and how to pitch without wasting an editor’s morning.
Know which Skimm you are pitching
theSkimm is not one newsletter. Each product has a different focus and a different reason to mention a brand, and a pitch that ignores this tends to go nowhere.
The Daily Skimm is a news briefing. It explains the day’s biggest stories in a conversational voice. A brand ends up there only when it is part of the news: a major recall, a viral moment, a big acquisition, a lawsuit, a cultural story everyone is talking about. You cannot pitch your way into the daily news section with a product launch.
Skimm Shopping is the natural home for product recommendations. Its editors look for things their readers will want to buy, and like most shopping editorial across the industry, it is likely to include commerce links. Skimm Well covers health and wellness, which fits the Everyday Health connection. Skimm Money covers personal finance. Skimm Parenting covers family life. The SKM Report is the company’s research and insights product about its audience.
Pick one. A sustainable cookware brand belongs in Shopping. A fintech app for teenagers might fit Money or Parenting. A sleep supplement may fit Well, though health claims will get more scrutiny there. Once you choose, read at least two weeks of that newsletter before you write a word.
What the reader wants, and why most pitches miss
theSkimm’s reader is busy. The brand built its voice on explaining complicated things fast to people who do not have time to read five articles. That voice extends to how its editors think about products. The question behind every mention is something like: would a smart friend recommend this to me, in one sentence, while we are both running late?
I call this the Running Late Test, and I use it with every consumer brand before we pitch a newsletter like this. Try to describe your product’s benefit in one sentence that a friend would say out loud. “This is the only travel mug I’ve had that doesn’t leak in my bag.” “This app finally made me stop paying for subscriptions I forgot about.” If you cannot do it, the pitch is not ready, because the editor will not do it for you.
Most brand pitches fail because they describe the company instead of the reader’s life. They lead with the founding story, the funding round, the proprietary technology, the mission. None of that helps an editor decide whether a reader will be glad they clicked. Lead with the reader’s problem and how your product fixes it, and put the brand story in a single line further down.
Tone matters as much as content. theSkimm’s voice is friendly, quick and a little playful, and pitches that sound like a corporate press release feel out of place next to it. Write the way you would text a friend about something you found. Short sentences. Specific details. No exclamation points stacked three deep, and no breathless superlatives an editor will have to strip out before anyone reads them.
Be clear about what is new. Editors get many pitches for products that have existed for years. If something has changed, such as a new version, a new price, a new retailer or a new color that sold out last time, lead with it. If nothing is new, find the reader moment that makes your product relevant this month, such as a seasonal problem or a story in the news.
Price matters too. Shopping editors writing for a broad audience of working women tend to favor products in an accessible range, with occasional splurges that are clearly worth it. If your product is expensive, the pitch needs to explain why it is worth that price in terms a reader would agree with.
Five parts of a pitch that gets read
Find the right editor first. Look at bylines on recent shopping and lifestyle content on theSkimm’s site and in its newsletters, and check their professional profiles for the beats they cover. Sending to a general inbox is a last resort.
Then keep the pitch short enough to read on a phone. Five parts are enough.
A subject line that names the reader benefit. “The $30 bag that fits a laptop and a gym change” beats “Introducing Acme’s new tote collection.”
One sentence on the reader problem. What annoys, worries or slows down the reader, in plain words.
One or two sentences on the product. What it is, what it costs, where to buy it, and what makes it different from the three obvious alternatives.
Proof. A strong review count and rating, a notable stockist, a specific result from testers, a credible award. One proof point is better than five vague ones.
The offer. Samples, a test product, high-resolution images, a reader discount code if you have one, and a fast reply when they write back.
Do not attach a press kit PDF. Link to one. Do not follow up more than once. And never send the same pitch, word for word, to several editors at the same outlet.
What to do after a mention
If an editor features your product, be ready before it happens. Make sure the product page linked in the pitch loads fast on a phone, shows the price and the exact item mentioned, and has stock to cover a spike. Newsletter readers often click within the first hour after a send, and an out-of-stock page wastes the mention.
Thank the editor once, briefly, and do not ask for another feature in the same note. Share the mention on your own channels and add it to your press page with the date and a link. A press page that lists real coverage helps journalists, retail buyers and AI assistants understand that a trusted publisher has already vetted your brand.
Keep a simple record of what happened: traffic, sales and new email signups in the 48 hours after the send. That data tells you whether the audience fits your product, and it is useful when you decide whether a paid partnership with the same outlet makes sense later.
Then go quiet for a while. Editors keep a mental list of brands that were good to work with: fast with samples, accurate with details, respectful of their time. Being on that list is how a single mention becomes a second one in a gift guide six months later.
Timing and the stories editors are already writing
Shopping and lifestyle editors plan around predictable moments: gift guides for holidays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, back-to-school, summer travel, the start of the new year, big retail sales events. Pitch those stories well ahead. For year-end gift guides, many editors start gathering products in late summer or early fall, so a pitch in mid-December is usually too late.
Watch for the trend pieces too. When the Daily Skimm or Skimm Well writes about a topic, such as a sleep trend, a money habit or a wellness question, related product and service roundups often follow. If your product fits a conversation readers are already having, say so in the first line of the pitch.
News moments are the other opening. If your company has data on a topic theSkimm is covering, such as a survey of how people are budgeting for the holidays, it can be useful to an editor even when it does not lead to a product mention. Being a helpful source builds the relationship that leads to the mention later.
Why a Skimm mention is worth the effort
It helps to be clear about what a mention does for a consumer brand, because it shapes how much time you should spend chasing one. The obvious effect is traffic and sales from a large, engaged audience of readers who trust the brand’s recommendations. The less obvious effect is credibility you can reuse. “As featured in theSkimm” on a product page, in a retail buyer pitch or in an investor update carries weight because the audience recognizes the name.
There is also a compounding effect. Editors at other outlets read newsletters like this one to spot products and trends. A brand that shows up in one trusted roundup is easier for the next editor to say yes to, because someone else has already done the first round of vetting. Over time, that chain of mentions is what moves a brand from unknown to obvious in its category, both for human shoppers and for the AI assistants that increasingly answer “what’s the best” questions.
Paid partnerships versus earned mentions
theSkimm also sells advertising and sponsored partnerships through its sales team. Those are paid placements, and for many brands they are a reasonable marketing buy given the size and loyalty of the audience. They are not the same as an editorial recommendation, and readers can usually tell the difference.
If you want both, keep them separate. Do not mention your ad budget in an editorial pitch, and do not expect an ad buy to earn editorial coverage. Editors at established outlets protect that line because it is the source of their credibility, and it is the same credibility that makes a mention worth having.
An earned mention in a newsletter like this does more than drive a spike in sales. It creates a record that search engines and AI shopping assistants can find when someone asks for the best product in your category. A recommendation from a trusted publisher is the kind of signal those tools lean on.
So start small and specific. Pick one newsletter, write your Running Late sentence, and send one five-part pitch to the right editor this week.