Thanks, Justin, I always enjoy your insights (minus the typos...) From a Canadian perspective, your non-mention of the Globe and Mail did surprise. It costs a fortune to subscribe (at least to the paper version) but most of the time delivers good journalism and has some columnists who consistently offer useful insights.
Thanks, Justin, I always enjoy your insights (minus the typos...) From a Canadian perspective, your non-mention of the Globe and Mail did surprise. It costs a fortune to subscribe (at least to the paper version) but most of the time delivers good journalism and has some columnists who consistently offer useful insights.
As for Substack's "Nazi problem," it does bother me and, following the example of Brigitte Pellerin, I'm considering moving over to Ghost. Its help desk's answer to the question how they handle this matter compared very favourably to Hamish McKenzie's. Its business model (a flat fee based on the number of subscribers; writers keep 100% of the revenue) also should be very attractive to many and makes people like me, who never intend to ask for paid subscriptions, feel better than being 'forced' to be freeloaders. I'm continuing to look into the pros and cons and your several references are helpful in that regard.
Y'know, I considered adding a whole aside about the Globe — which I think manages to do the Times' tactic better than the Times — but ultimately left it out. It would also be unfair as I'm hopelessly biased, given it's really the only Canadian outlet I still write for, and I'm very fond of our relationship.
I certainly can't criticize anyone for moving to Ghost or other platforms. I just really believe that letting perfect be the enemy of good is a sure-fire way for independent journalists, desperately trying to break through our distribution model, to kneecap themselves. Certainly some people think the benefit of a boycott outweighs the costs of abandoning a platform that's working well for them — my mental math says it's not.
No, I hadn't heard. Thanks for passing this on. Good to see that the Substack leadership is capable of listening. Meanwhile, my experiment with Ghost is not going very well so far (i.t.o. transferring my content over) : It looks like I'd have to do a fair amount of editing to make it look the way I want it.
Thanks, Justin, I always enjoy your insights (minus the typos...) From a Canadian perspective, your non-mention of the Globe and Mail did surprise. It costs a fortune to subscribe (at least to the paper version) but most of the time delivers good journalism and has some columnists who consistently offer useful insights.
As for Substack's "Nazi problem," it does bother me and, following the example of Brigitte Pellerin, I'm considering moving over to Ghost. Its help desk's answer to the question how they handle this matter compared very favourably to Hamish McKenzie's. Its business model (a flat fee based on the number of subscribers; writers keep 100% of the revenue) also should be very attractive to many and makes people like me, who never intend to ask for paid subscriptions, feel better than being 'forced' to be freeloaders. I'm continuing to look into the pros and cons and your several references are helpful in that regard.
Y'know, I considered adding a whole aside about the Globe — which I think manages to do the Times' tactic better than the Times — but ultimately left it out. It would also be unfair as I'm hopelessly biased, given it's really the only Canadian outlet I still write for, and I'm very fond of our relationship.
I certainly can't criticize anyone for moving to Ghost or other platforms. I just really believe that letting perfect be the enemy of good is a sure-fire way for independent journalists, desperately trying to break through our distribution model, to kneecap themselves. Certainly some people think the benefit of a boycott outweighs the costs of abandoning a platform that's working well for them — my mental math says it's not.
I'm sure you've also seen that Substack has done a slight course correction: https://www.platformer.news/p/substack-says-it-will-remove-nazi
No, I hadn't heard. Thanks for passing this on. Good to see that the Substack leadership is capable of listening. Meanwhile, my experiment with Ghost is not going very well so far (i.t.o. transferring my content over) : It looks like I'd have to do a fair amount of editing to make it look the way I want it.