Here's a related question about small business newsletter management, a use case I'm sure overlaps somewhat with strictly social newsletters: Free newsletter software for a small business?
And here's a good, recent overview of newsletter apps: https://zapier.com/learn/ultimate-guide-to-email-marketing-apps/best-email-newsletter-software/
But I'm wondering if there are any clear winners for people who are not using this for marketing.
Here are some hard and soft requirements:
- Allow collaboration on lists with partner
- Basic templating (e.g., include a standard footer with website login info so I don't have to remember to type it in every time, and avoid data entry errors)
- Ability to group list members
- Import Gmail contacts
- Sync with Gmail contacts
MailChimp seems great, and we do qualify for their free tier of service, but it isn't quite as lightweight as I'd prefer. For example, I can't just log in and quickly send an e-mail announcing a website update. I tried their new TinyLetter, which is also great, but that permits no templating, and the "subscribers" cannot be grouped.