Things Are Gonna Be Changing on April 1st (No Foolin')
I threatened it for months, I finally made a formal declaration about it on March 7, and after tomorrow, it’s finally going to happen: on April 1st, That Thing They Did is shifting to a model where all of the original, previously-unpublished content will be subscription-only.
Why is happening on April 1st? For a very specific reason: that date is the 10th anniversary of my becoming a full-time freelance journalist.
The fact of the matter is that, despite all I’ve accomplished in the past decade (and believe me, I know full well that I’ve accomplished a great deal), I’m still not where I want to be in my career. I’ve carved out a niche for myself as a top-shelf interviewer of pop culture figures, but it’s not a niche that’s resulted in a tremendous amount of name recognition outside of those readers over the years who’ve made a concerted effort to follow my work.
That said, it’s those readers who’ve spontaneously delivered the praise that’s helped keep me going in the lean times, who’ve watched as the number of my bylines decreased at some outlets but also began popping up in new, often higher-profile locations, and they’ve always made a point of sharing the links to my pieces wherever they may have appeared.
Some of those readers are subscribers to this very newsletter, and several of them have let me know that they’re willing to put up $5.00 a month to help me continue to produce the sort of interviews that some of you have been reading from me for even longer than just the past decade. Anyone I haven’t heard from, that’s all fine and well, too, because we’re all living through a time where some people literally don’t have $5.00 a month to spare, but I have no doubt that those people will still continue to read my work and tell others about it when the opportunity presents itself, and I will never cease to be appreciative of their efforts. But for as long as I’ve been doing this, for as much as I’ve accomplished, and for as good as I am at what I do, I shouldn’t have to struggle this damned much and endure this much stress to make ends meet. And that’s why I decided to go this route.
Below you’ll find links to all of the material I’ve offered up to the readership since I kicked off this newsletter back in November. This is the sort of material I want to keep delivering, but I want to be able to do it without having to ask, “Can I afford to take the time to transcribe this interview?” By doing this, I think I can.
So as you can see, I’ve got to take a shot at this.
I hope you’ll join me. I understand it you can’t.
But either way, I promise you this: if you subscribe, it absolutely will be worth every penny.
No fooling.