Audience

Softletter addresses a fairly narrow audience—senior and middle managers of software companies. The last time we surveyed our readership, about 50% held CEO and C"X"O and directors titles; most of the rest were consultants, investors, and industry observers. In addition, our readership tends to be heavier among larger, more sophisticated software companies.

Thus, the first question we ask about any story idea is, "Why would this interest our audience?" (The fact that you want to sell something to our audience is not a persuasive answer, by the way.) If you're not clear about what is important to the people who run software companies, or if you're pitching a generic idea aimed at "IT professionals" or "software programmers," we're unlikely to be interested.