By Alastair Otter

Every year I update update my list of favourite data-related resources (podcasts, newsletters, websites and guides). The core of the list remains relatively stable across years but publications do come and go and podcasts go silent.

When I first started this list it was mostly focused on journalism-related data resources. Over time this has shifted towards the broader data and visualisation community.

This is an opinionated list, not a comprehensive one. There is as much not on this list as there is on. If there are things that you feel are egregious omissions please let me know (email at the end) so I can take a look.

First up …

Favourite blogs & publications

Are blogs coming back? It feels like they may be though I think they’re probably called ‘Substacks’ now. Either way there are some fine resources out there like:

  • Nightingale is the newly revamped Data Visualisation Society website to go alongside the Nightingale magazine
  • Flowing Data by Nathan Yau ought to be at the top of every data visualisation practitioner’s reading list. Awesome ideas, regularly
  • Chartable by Datawrapper is chock-full of great tips and deep dives into things like colour and accessibility and more
  • PolicyViz by Jon Schwabish is a great companion to his equally good books
  • ChartR was recently bought by Sherwood News but still does a great newsletter with chart ideas
  • Effective Data Storytelling by Brent Dykes is the companion blog to his excellent book of the same name
  • Codera‘s blog (and companion newsletter) mostly features SA-focused charts that are great for sparking ideas

Must-read newsletters

A mix of newsletters covering data sources, story ideas, techniques and examples of data journalism.

  • Data is Plural by Jeremy Singer-Vine, a weekly newsletter with interesting datasets. You can also catch up on previous datasets with the Data is Plural datasets spreadsheet
  • How to speak Data by Andy Cotgreave is a monthly newsletter covering everything from AI and data to chart disasters on TV
  • Off the Charts by The Economist (you now need to be a subscriber, but it’s almost worth the cost of a subscription alone)