If you're trying to actually keep up with the newsletters you subscribe to (not just collect them), you've probably looked at both Junco and Meco. Here's the founder's take on why Junco is built for the way most people actually have time to consume newsletters today.
The short version: Meco is a reader. Junco is a daily podcast for your inbox, with a reading view on the platform too. If your problem is "I never get around to reading the newsletters I'm subscribed to," another reader is unlikely to fix that. A short audio episode that lands in your queue every morning is.
What each one is
Meco is a newsletter reading app for iOS. Connect Gmail, get your subscriptions in a feed, scroll. The product is a reading experience.
Junco is a complete consumption platform for the newsletters in your inbox, built audio-first. Connect Gmail (or use the personal Junco inbox address you get on signup), pick the senders you care about, and a short audio episode covering everything that came in overnight lands in your queue every morning.
What you get with Junco that a reader can't give you
A real daily podcast, not a "listen" button. Built-in podcast player with queue, lock-screen controls, sleep timer, and offline downloads. The audio isn't a feature on top of a reading app; it is the product, and the player is built end-to-end for the daily-listen pattern.
Mixtape episodes. Junco can stitch multiple newsletters together into a single listen. One episode, several sources. There's no equivalent in a reading app because there's no reason to invent one until your unit of consumption is audio.
A personal inbox address. Every Junco account gets you@listen.tryjunco.com. Subscribe to newsletters with that address and never give the writer your real email. Works without ever connecting Gmail.
A discovery catalog you can subscribe to anonymously. 100+ curated newsletters you can add with one tap; we forward through a managed address so the writer never sees your real one.
On-demand episodes and premium cloud voices. A reader can't really offer either, because neither is something a reading app does.
A reading view is on the platform too. It ships on the roadmap, for the moments where reading actually fits. It's a complementary surface inside a broader audio platform, not the primary job.
The bet under each product
A reading app assumes the bottleneck is the reading experience. Cleaner typography, fewer distractions, and people will read more. Plausible, but it implicitly asks people to find more focused, eyes-on-screen time, which has been getting steadily scarcer for over a decade.
Junco assumes the bottleneck is attention itself, and that the unlock is moving newsletters into a slot most people already have plenty of: audio time. Walks, commutes, dishes, gym, the school run. That slot has been growing the whole time newsletter reading time has been shrinking. Move the content into the slot and the consumption problem mostly disappears.
That's why Junco shipped audio first and treats reading as a complementary surface, not the other way around.
Side by side
| Junco | Meco | |
|---|---|---|
| Daily podcast of your newsletters | Yes | No |
| Full podcast player + offline downloads | Yes | No |
| Mixtape episodes (multiple newsletters in one listen) | Yes | No |
| On-demand episode generation | Yes | No |
| Personal inbox address (no Gmail required) | Yes | No |
| Premium cloud voices | Yes | n/a |
| Newsletter discovery catalog | Yes (100+) | Yes |
| Reading view | Roadmap | Yes |
The bigger picture
Newsletter supply has exploded. Substack, Beehiiv, ghost.io, indie writers. There's more good writing in the format than at any point in the last decade. Reading time has not grown. That gap is what creates the "newsletter graveyard" most subscribers experience: fifty unread issues, mild guilt, eventual mass-archive.
Reading apps make the graveyard slightly tidier. They don't fix it for most people. The problem is rarely that the inbox is the wrong place to read; the problem is that the day no longer reliably contains a "sit and read" slot in the first place.
Audio fixes it. Beta users routinely go from a 10% read-through rate on their newsletter feed to 80%+ listen-through within a couple of weeks. Same content, different format, completely different consumption pattern.
If that's the unlock you've been looking for, join the Junco beta and we'll get you in as soon as we're on the App Store.