Matt Gemmell on publishing services like paper.li:

Newspapers contain editorial. There’s some kind of journalistic contribution, however brief, in each article. With these online “newspapers”, there’s zero. It’s just a wad of links and extracts, styled to appear something like a newspaper. No commentary by the “publisher”.…Even just a brief remark on why you care about each item enough to share it? Give me a reason to be interested.

I read articles and links because of the contribution the person brings to that article or topic. The contribution doesn’t have to be an essay — sometimes a few words on why they think it’s important is enough.