How do I build a personal daily AI news digest that's actually useful?

I wanted my own newsletter on what I care about, designed well enough that I'd actually read it. I built it as an automation that emails me every day: my own daily digest of all the interesting information.

What should the digest know about me?

Everything that makes it specific. Mine covers AI, digital marketing, local media and newsletters. But topics alone aren't enough. The system needs to know what I'm doing so it can give me direct advice, ideas and strategies.

"Yes, having it give direct advice and ideas and strategies to me, knowing these things that I'm doing, is super key."

For me that means anything related to building software like lightbreak or greetform, running local media and newsletter brands, marketing and growth hacking, and building with AI tools from a non-technical perspective.

What format works?

• Two to four stories per section. Enough to be useful, short enough to finish.
• Smart brevity style. What happened, why it matters, your move.
• One image. Only the first story gets an image. The others don't.
• Your own design style. I created my own design style and tell it to use that, so I don't have to deal with the ugly stuff it almost always defaults to.
• Buttons, not "read more" links. Smaller buttons look much better in a newsletter than hyperlinked text. A link in the middle of a paragraph is fine, but the main link to the article should be a button.

How should items be ranked?

By urgency and stakes, with a color for each level:

1. Something you should seriously look into this week.
2. Something to follow somewhat closely.
3. Something that's just cool to know.

How do I make it better over time?

Two things. First, a 60-second version at the top: the simplest version of what's in the newsletter, for days when that's all the time I have. Second, a feedback loop. I should be able to click I like it or I don't, or more like this, less like this.

Then grade it honestly. The version I reviewed got a B, maybe a B+, from me. I definitely think it can get to an A-minus or even an A.

Could this be a product?

Shane Brady of AI for Media Brands suggested exactly that on my podcast: a self-serve version where readers list their interests and get their own personalized daily email. For now, mine is built for an audience of one.