Why you should subscribe

The case for me.

Earlier this week I announced that I was, for the first time since I started “So What,” discounting the price of both a monthly and yearly subscription.

It’s true! You can get 20% off a paid subscription right here!

But, what I realized afterward is that I didn’t really explain to people why they should become paid subscribers. Like, I get that money is tight for many people — and that spending $40 for a year of my writing and analysis might seem like too heavy a lift.

So, I wanted to make the case for myself — and then let a few people who are paid subscribers make the case for me too. (Substack has a great feature that allows people who become paid subscribers to write you a note telling you why they did it!)

A few thoughts from me first:

1. Bang for your buck. Lots of Substack writers put out a piece a day. Or a piece a week. I am, on average, writing 2-3 pieces every day. That’s, let’s call it, 15 pieces in a typical week. And 60 pieces in a month. Which means, if you are paying $4 a month to subscribe, each piece costs you 15 cents. 15 CENTS!

2. Premium video (and audio) content. For the life of the newsletter so far, I’ve mostly produced written stuff. Which I love doing! And I will continue to do! But I have plans to do more video posts — like this one — as well as experiment more in the audio space too. And ALL of that content will be ONLY for paid subscribers.

3. Commenting. Starting December 1, in order to comment on my pieces, you will need to be a paid subscriber. Of late I have noticed that there is some spamming going on in the comments section, which gets in the way of the community I am trying to build. Hopefully limiting comments to paid subscribers only will help with that.

4. Supporting journalism is a good thing. Not to get too altruistic on you but look: I was caught up in the harsh economic realities of the media business when CNN laid me off last year. It’s a VERY hard industry in which to make a living. I am giving it a go on my own via Substack. So, if you support journalism broadly — and independent journalism specifically — becoming a paid subscriber is a GREAT way to show that support.

Now for a few testimonials from people who have recently become paid subscribers:

None of this is meant to brag or boast. I am not into all that. I like to show and prove, making thoughtful content day in and day out. And let you judge if it’s worth your while.

I hope you will consider joining and investing in this community. Thanks so much.