The Skimm is the best daily news newsletter for millennial women who want a conversational 5-minute briefing. It has approximately 5 million Daily Skimm subscribers and a 12 million total audience across platforms, is delivered free every weekday at 6:00 AM ET, and was founded in 2012 by former NBC News producers Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin (based on public data as of April 2026).
Acquired by Ziff Davis (Everyday Health Group) in March 2025, The Skimm now publishes six newsletters covering news, money, wellness, shopping, and parenting - each written like a smart friend texting you what you need to know.
Daily Skimm Subscribers
~5 million (based on public data as of April 2026)
Total Audience
~12 million across platforms (estimated as of April 2026)
Founded
July 5, 2012 by Danielle Weisberg & Carly Zakin
Target Demographic
~92% female, primarily millennials (per theSkimm media kit)
Total Newsletters
6 (Daily, Money, Well, Shopping, Parenting, Report)
Cost
Free (ad-supported)
| Newsletter | Target Audience | Tone | Subscribers |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Skimm | Millennial women | Conversational, friendly | 5M+ |
| Morning Brew | Business professionals | Witty, casual | 4M+ |
| Axios AM | Executives | Concise, Smart Brevity | 2.5M+ |
| NYT The Morning | General news readers | Authoritative | Large |
All are free daily newsletters - perfect candidates for consolidation with Readless
The Skimm (stylized as theSkimm) is a daily email newsletter that delivers news, politics, and culture in a conversational, easy-to-digest format. Founded in 2012 by Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, both former NBC News producers, The Skimm pioneered newsletter-first journalism specifically for millennial women who wanted to stay informed without spending hours consuming news.
The Daily Skimm arrives every weekday morning at 6:00 AM ET and can be read in 5 minutes or less. It covers 3-5 major news stories with brief, accessible explanations, plus quick hits on other important updates. With over 5 million subscribers and a 12 million total audience across platforms, The Skimm has become essential reading for busy professionals who value staying informed.
Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin met while working at NBC News. They noticed their friends - smart, busy, millennial women - struggled to stay on top of the news despite caring about being informed. Traditional news sources felt overwhelming, too dense, or aimed at older audiences.
In July 2012, they quit their jobs and started theSkimm from their couch in New York City. The first Daily Skimm was sent on July 5, 2012to about 50 friends and family members. The goal: "make it easier to be smarter" by delivering the news in a conversational, relatable way - like a smart friend texting you what you need to know.
The Skimm grew from 50 subscribers to over 100,000 in its first year(2012-2013), largely through word-of-mouth and a viral referral program called "Skimm'bassadors." By 2015, they hit 1.5 million subscribers. At its peak in 2024, theSkimm reported 7 million subscribers across all newsletters.
The company raised over $55 million in venture capital from investors including Google Ventures, 21st Century Fox, and Greycroft Partners. In March 2025, theSkimm was acquired by Ziff Davis (Everyday Health Group) to continue growing its wellness and lifestyle content verticals.
The Skimm is best for busy millennial women (ages 25-44) who want a fast, friendly 5-minute news briefing every weekday morning. Approximately 92% of subscribers are female, and the voice is deliberately conversational - like a smart friend texting you what happened overnight.
How does The Skimm compare to Morning Brew, Axios, and NYT? A detailed breakdown.
| Newsletter | Target Audience | Tone/Style | Frequency | Subscribers | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Skimm | Millennial women | Conversational, friendly | Daily (weekdays, 6am ET) | 5M+ | Free |
| Morning Brew | Business professionals | Witty, casual | Daily (6am) | 4M+ | Free |
| Axios AM | Executives, decision-makers | Smart Brevity, concise | Daily (6am ET) | 2.5M+ | Free |
| NYT The Morning | General news readers | Authoritative, in-depth | Daily (morning) | Large | Free |
| Politico Playbook | Political insiders | Insider, DC-focused | Daily (morning) | Large | Free |
Most busy professionals read The Skimm and Morning Brew and Axios and NYT. That's 20-30 emails per week just from morning briefings.
Readless consolidates all of them into one AI digest. See how →
6:00 AM - The Skimm arrives (5 min read)
6:05 AM - Morning Brew arrives (7 min)
6:15 AM - Axios AM arrives (8 min)
6:30 AM - NYT The Morning (10 min)
7:00 AM - Skimm Money, Well, Shopping (10 min)
7:30 AM - Other newsletters (15 min)
Total: 55 minutes scattered across 90 minutes
Plus duplicate coverage: Infrastructure bill mentioned in Skimm, Brew, Axios, and NYT
6:00 AM - One Readless digest (12 min read)
Total: 12 minutes, one focused read with coffee
Infrastructure bill: Single synthesized summary from all 4 sources
43 min
saved per day
268 hours
saved per year
78%
time reduction
"The Skimm is my go-to for staying informed without the overwhelm. It feels like a friend texting me the news over coffee."
— Typical Skimm reader testimonial
"I subscribe to The Skimm, Morning Brew, and Axios. Before Readless, I spent an hour each morning on newsletters. Now it's 10 minutes."
— Sarah T., Marketing Manager
"Email newsletters have proven to be one of the most effective ways to reach and engage audiences. The best newsletters achieve 40-50% open rates - far higher than social media reach."
— Newsletter Industry Research, 2025
"The average knowledge worker switches between apps and websites 1,200 times per day, and information overload costs the global economy $900 billion annually in lost productivity."
— Research on workplace productivity, 2025
This is exactly why consolidating newsletters with tools like Readless matters - reducing context-switching saves both time and mental energy.
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Build My Morning DigestThe Daily Skimm has approximately 5 million subscribers as of April 2026, with a total audience of roughly 12 million across newsletters, the app, and social platforms (based on public data as of April 2026). At its peak in 2024, theSkimm reported 7 million subscribers across all platforms before its acquisition by Ziff Davis in March 2025.
The Skimm was founded in 2012 by Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, both former NBC News producers, who started the newsletter from their couch in New York City. The first Daily Skimm was sent on July 5, 2012 to about 50 friends and family. Their goal was to make it easier for millennial women to stay informed without spending hours on traditional news.
The Daily Skimm arrives every weekday morning at 6:00 AM ET (3:00 AM PT). This timing is intentional so readers can finish it with their morning coffee before the workday starts. The newsletter takes about 5 minutes to read and is not published on Saturdays or Sundays (based on theSkimm's published schedule, April 2026).
No, The Skimm is for anyone who wants a quick, conversational news briefing, but its target demographic is millennial women - roughly 92% of subscribers are female (per theSkimm media kit). Men, Gen Z readers, and older millennials all read it. The conversational tone and coverage of news, culture, money, and wellness appeal well beyond the original millennial-women audience.
TheSkimm publishes 6 newsletters as of April 2026: Daily Skimm (flagship weekday news), Skimm Money (weekly personal finance), Skimm Well (weekly wellness), Skimm Shopping (product recommendations and deals), Skimm Parenting (weekly parenting advice), and SKM Report (occasional deep dives). You can subscribe to all six or only the ones that fit your interests - each is free.
Yes, every Skimm newsletter is completely free with no paid tier or paywall. TheSkimm makes money through advertising, sponsored content, and affiliate partnerships (notably Skimm Shopping). There is no premium subscription, and founders Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin have repeatedly confirmed the free, ad-supported model is the core business strategy (as of April 2026).
TheSkimm is owned by Ziff Davis, which acquired the company in March 2025 and folded it into its Everyday Health Group division. Founders Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin remain involved in the brand. Before the acquisition, theSkimm had raised more than $55 million in venture capital from investors including Google Ventures, 21st Century Fox, and Greycroft Partners.
The Skimm targets millennial women with news, politics, lifestyle, wellness, and culture in a conversational, text-a-friend tone. Morning Brew targets business professionals with a witty, tech and finance focus. Both are free daily weekday newsletters that arrive around 6 AM ET, but they serve different audiences - The Skimm is best for a cultural news briefing; Morning Brew is best for business context.
Yes. With Readless, you can forward The Daily Skimm plus Morning Brew, Axios AM, NYT The Morning, and 40+ other newsletters to your personal @mail.readless.app address. Readless uses AI to consolidate them into one personalized digest on your schedule, deduplicating overlapping stories (e.g., a political story covered by all four) and grouping content by topic rather than sender.
The Skimm's success rests on three pillars: a conversational voice that reads like a text from a smart friend, relentless consistency (weekday 6 AM ET delivery since 2012), and content aligned to millennial women's real priorities - not just hard news, but careers, money, wellness, and culture. The early 'Skimm'bassadors' viral referral program also drove rapid word-of-mouth growth.
TheSkimm aims to be nonpartisan and explicitly covers political stories from multiple angles, but some readers perceive a slight center-left lean in topic selection and framing. Founders Weisberg and Zakin consistently say their goal is to make news accessible, not to push an agenda. Readers who want strictly centrist framing should compare it against Axios AM, which uses Smart Brevity for neutral coverage.
The Daily Skimm is designed to be read in 5 minutes or less. Each issue covers 3-5 major news stories with brief, accessible explanations plus quick hits on other updates. This quick-read format is core to the brand promise of 'making it easier to be smarter' - it fits into a commute, a coffee break, or the first five minutes of your workday.
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