This Publication's Path To Sustainability

And what it has to do with you, 15 months in.

Maintaining a career in journalism. (Photo: Getty)

Most people who read How Things Work are interested in the stuff that gets written about here and are less interested in meta-information about The State of The Publication. This is reasonable. However, because creating an independent site like this that is actually sustainable is such a rare and fragile thing, I like to pause once in a (mercifully rare) while to give a short update about where things stand here. If you don’t give a damn, please feel free to skip today’s post. Otherwise, read on.

Today is the 15 month anniversary of the launch of this site. Nice! I spent more than 15 years as a journalist before I started this site, and this place gives me more personal satisfaction than anywhere I have ever worked, because of the direct relationship between me, the one writing stuff, and you, the readers. The fact that there is no media company between us mediating that relationship means that, on one hand, there is very little safety net here for me, professionally speaking; but on the other hand, I feel a much greater sense of satisfaction over every subscriber here. Sometimes in my little appeals for subscriptions that I append to posts I write something like, “We will make it together, my friends.” This is corny, but honest. You are reading the most independent version of independent media, right here, and it will either survive or die based not just on me, but on all of you believing that this place is worth it.

Besides the freedom that this site offers me, another reason I started this is that, after I finished writing my book a year and a half ago, the journalism industry had fully entered its terminal phase. Whereas it had never been very hard to find jobs before, I found then that every halfway decent job had 300 applicants. It was both ridiculous and a sign of an industry whose economic model has collapsed. The sort of subscription-based site that you are now reading is one of the only viable models left for writers like me to earn a decent living. Perhaps that will change, when we finally tax the big tech platforms that have sucked all the money out of journalism and funnel that money back into news. Don’t expect that to happen any time soon. For now, this is where we are.

Knowing this, I did not set out to get rich here. I set out to build this site to a level of income comparable to what I would make in a normal job—a sustainable level that would allow me to keep it going. I was told by reliable people that this process would take about 18 months. Today, 15 months in, How Things Work is about 3/4 of the way to financial sustainability. That is decent, but a bit behind schedule. I’m writing this update to let you all know where we stand here, and also to tell you that the viability and continued survival of this place depends on me reaching that financial sustainability. If you enjoy reading this site, or find it useful in any way, and would like for it to continue to exist, it would be very helpful if you would become a paid subscriber now. Paid subscribers will ultimately determine if I can keep on doing this.

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I have been looking at internet media metrics ever since I wrote for Gawker. The readership of this site is strong. The things I publish here get more readers than many of the long-established legacy publications that I write for. (A funny side note is that there are public figures who will give me an interview for a magazine but will not give me an interview for a Substack, even though that interview would get significantly more readers here than in the magazine.) Building a readership, though it requires a lot of work, is not the hard part. The hard part is building a sustainable financial model alongside that readership. This is why so many publications that are good and well-read still end up folding.

Luckily, the subscription model here is a good way to ensure that doesn’t happen. All that is required for How Things Work to continue on indefinitely into the bright future is for those of you who are A) subscribers who B) like to read what is published here and C) have enough disposable income to not be in financial distress take a moment to become paid subscribers. That’s it. If that happens, this place is golden. Believe me—I also read a lot of things on the internet that I don’t pay for. The fact is, though, that if a relatively small number of those of you who are free subscribers simply become paid subscribers, this place will reach sustainability very soon.

And when we do hit sustainability, exciting things can happen. I think of this path as having three main landmarks:

1. Financial sustainability: I know that this publication will pay my bills and I can treat it like a full time job.

2. Sustainability plus: With some extra revenue, I would love to incorporate more reporting into this site. For example—earlier this year I decided I wanted to cover the Democratic National Convention. So I pitched Defector, which agreed to pay my travel costs, and I am going to Chicago to write about it for them. If I had enough income here, however, I could just go and do the reporting for this site. Rather than having to freelance stories that require travel, I would happily just pay my own travel costs and go do the reporting and publish it here. That would be fantastic for both you, the readers, and for me, because I could start getting press credentials that read “How Things Work,” which would be cool. A modest amount of revenue above the level of financial sustainability will allow me to start doing more real reporting here.

3. Expansion: With more income, I could begin having freelancers write things for this site as well. I could expand the roster of writers here. That requires being able to pay contributors. At that point, this site goes from being a one-man project to something more like a genuine independent news outlet. I think I could move into this territory at something like 2X financial sustainability income.

You may have noticed that most subscription-based sites have paywalls, but this one does not. Because I am a little bit of a dreamy-eyed socialist, I made the decision to keep this publication free for all to read. (There is actually a very real social problem of good writing increasingly being locked behind paywalls with the collapse of the traditional journalism model, resulting in a situation where wealthier people have access to high quality information and less wealthy people only get crap.) As a philosophical matter I am very happy to keep this site open to all. As an economic matter, it is only possible to do so if those of you can afford to pay for it actually do so. The good news is that becoming a paid subscriber here does not just support me—it also supports access for other readers who may not be able to afford a subscription. That is a good deed.

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So you can think of How Things Work a little bit like, say, public radio, where the hosts periodically come on and say “Hey we know you listen to this every day while you’re driving to work—time to kick in a few bucks, por favor.” But this place lacks the bazillion-dollar endowment of public radio. A metaphor for independent media that I like even more is that it is like a public neighborhood park. Everyone can come to the park. Everyone can use the park. There is a donation box at the park where you can leave a donation for the upkeep of the park. As long as the people who use the park and who are not poor leave a little donation, then everyone gets to keep using the park. Nobody is going to force you to put any money in the donation box. But if too many of the people who use the park don’t bother to kick in anything, the park will ultimately close down. It’s a choice.

The things that I think are best in this world, like the labor movement, are examples of the great things that can arise when many people decide to offer their mutual support to one another. With the collapse of the ad-supported model of journalism, media is now moving into the category of things that require an agreed upon method of mutual support. There are no ads here. I make money only from you all. I appreciate each and every person who has chosen to become a subscriber. It means a lot. Part of this place belongs to you.

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Also

• Besides writing How Things Work, the thing that I have spent the most time doing this year is promoting my new book about the labor movement, “The Hammer.” This week, the New York Labor History Association ran a nice review of it. If you’d like to know why the labor movement is the hope of our nation, you can order a copy from an independent book store right here, or pick one up wherever books are sold. I am still doing periodic book tour events—In the coming months, I’ll be speaking about the book in West Virginia, Las Vegas, Brooklyn, Florida, Illinois, and elsewhere. When I get a full list of those dates I’ll publish it here. If you’re interested in having me come to your city to speak, just drop me an email.

• Nate Wendt is a labor activist and organizer who lives in South Dakota. I met him earlier this year and he is a very committed dude. He is currently fighting cancer. If you’d like to do something nice, you can donate here to help him pay his bills and support his family while he’s dealing with his medical issue. You might be surprised how happy you get when you do nice things for people.

• Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have helped this place survive for 15 months. The next 15 will only be bigger and better. Tell your family. Tell your friends. Tell your dog: We’re all in this together. And together we will win.