Hey's new blogging service, Hey World, is certainly something that has caught my eye recently. I've got some mixed feelings about it, but I do think that it could be a very good alternative for people that don't want to have to go through various hurdles just to publish words on the internet.
Matt Birchler, using the Hey World service, seems to have similar feelings:
Hey World looks like it aims to simplify the setup process even more, and remove some of the mental overhead that comes with starting a blog. You don't have to think of a name, find a theme, and figure out what service you're going to use, you can just write an email like you normally would, send it to world@hey.com, and boom you've got a blog post. People can even subscribe to your future posts via email or RSS, so they can follow along easily and however they prefer.
— Matt Birchler, Hey World: A Love Letter to Blogs
Like Matt, I already run a self-hosted blog, and I'm not thinking about making any major changes anytime soon. However the attitude towards treating newsletters more like personal letters is something I can get behind. It's also one of the main aims I have with my newsletter.