
But honestly, mostly it just felt very scary…but then by the time I’d woken up the next day, so many people had subscribed, that I knew I was going to be good into next year just using the revenue that readers had already contributed. The day that I announced I was leaving The Verge, it should have felt like a really exciting day.

There’s no telling how valuable people find it until they actually fill out a form and contribute. I’ve been giving this thing away for three years for free.

You put yourself out there, and you really do feel naked. So I thought, can I, in my own way, create kind of a ‘paper of record’ for platforms? And what would that look like? It feels like whenever I go online, it’s all anyone is talking about. One of the reasons I wanted to change the name of it was I wanted to signal that while Facebook will continue to be one of the pillars of my coverage for a really long time, what I’m really interested in is just the idea of platforms as the defining force in our life. My old newsletter, The Interface, it was sort of a pun on the idea of a thing that existed between Facebook and the world. Unlike my previous newsletter, there will be a home on the web where people can discuss the subjects that I cover. What I’m still thinking through is, what else can I give people who have become paid subscribers? There are lots of things that I want to do, starting with community threads. And so I asked them, “If I were doing this on my own, would you still subscribe?” And enough people said yes, that I thought it would be worth a shot. When I talked to people at the companies I covered, it seemed like it was valuable to them, too. I had come to believe in the value of the thing I was making.
Casey newton verge full#
I’ve signed up for the annual plan and already look forward to his first installment next month.See the full transcript here, or highlights below: I don’t know where that point is, but it’s possible we’re already at it. There will be a point at which it will be exceedingly difficult to break through if you don’t have name recognition already. I heartily support journalists who take this step, and have long admired and subscribed to two of the best who helped blaze this new path to profitable newsletters: Ben Thompson from Stratechery and Bill Bishop of Sinocism. That said, it feels like there is a clear limit to how many newsletters people can - or would want - to subscribe to. Then there’s the matter of timeliness: Newton says the newsletter will focus on the intersection of social networks and democracy, something not well understood yet critical to elections and the long-term sustainability of democracy. He has the name recognition, deep knowledge of his subject area, a great network of contacts, and the dedication and discipline to make it a success. No doubt Newton has the chops to pull this off. Intimate, fascinating, generative communities. And because their publications are about something specific, they can create real communities.
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Casey newton verge free#
It promotes expertise: the reporter is free to explore their given subject at great depth, sharing what they learn in an iterative way. The publication feels more trustworthy: you know who the writer is, and where they’re coming from. Something special happens when a publication shrinks down all the way to a single reporter’s point of view. The latest is Casey Newton, longtime technology reporter for The Verge and writer of The Interface. Newton recently announced he would launch a newsletter on Substack called Platformer on October 5. They’ve become a legit path for journalists to pursue their own beats at their own pace while building their own audiences. The rise of newsletters, which has been underway for several years now, is finally on the media’s radar.
