I run a similar service over at The Daily Water Cooler http://www.the-dwc.co/ so I definitely agree with your line of thinking regarding email as one of the most easily accessible platforms.
My service might be closer to Dave Pell's NextDraft or a more general Term Sheet by Dan Primack though because it's really just me curating the content so I generally add more personal flavor and don't really have an algorithm to help source the content.
Kind of curious where TheSkimm goes though. They got some nice funding recently from Homebrew but clearly are aiming to be more than just a newsletter. They also used to be more young professional woman-centric, but have started to slowly downplay that.
I gotta wonder though, why the Ivy League focus?
Anyway, good luck with the venture! Happy to see more people informed about the news.
Great list of resources, thanks for sharing!
Disclosure: I'm part of the Vettery team.