Worth reaching out to Joseph and the team at scoop.co.nz they are in the process of transforming their entire model and I thought might be able to provide some awesome support here.
Hamish I'm sure that you know that for the last several years of overwraught Covid drama (I'm being kind) that the NZ government has been subsidizing NZ media so much that it almost feels like we're in the Soviet Union circa 1974 and the only media that we're allowed to read is Pravda, the truth. And basically the NZ Government has not only claimed to be the one source of truth (source Ardern) but actually have been the one source of truth (in Pravda style of course).
I ended up on Substack for your commitment to free speech btw although I do feel that this might be the right to free speech but maybe not the right to be heard. And yes I did follow Glinner here as I figured if he was here then this must be one of the few places that values that free speech. I did that in a few days after a Floridian free speech advocate who ran blog software that I was using (write.as) got in my ear about something that he would not name but that maybe I should stop writing anything about (I'm pretty sure that Cate Spice had been in his ear).
On the topic of making this work for a writer without a name that drags readers here. Typically paid subscribers, if you don't manipulate them with paywalls, run around 4% or so in my experience. You therefore need about 30k subscribers in my estimation to make money here. I can't see myself ever getting to that level and I figure most of the writers that I follow and chat with won't ever get there either. I guess at some stage we'll leave and Substack will head back down the leftie (this was my political side until recently and I still cannot bring myself to vote for Nats or ACT) route where men can be women, Roxanne Gay speaks truth instead of the trans propaganda that she's paid to write and actual left wing dissidents (rather than astro-turf ones) are being rounded up to be put in camps or worse (along with their right wing bretheren) as suggested by no less than Noam Chomsky.
I hope instead that the world takes a turn towards sanity and that derogatory terms such as TERF & anti-vaxxer get consigned to the trash where they belong being manipulations of language by the forces of State even if getting enthusiastic traction with the mindless middle classes of the world. And I hope that Substack continues to make guys like Luke run to Ghost as that would prove that commitment to free speech.
Moving from printed media to easily shaped non print digital media. Or as Chris Hedges puts forward in his book Empire of Illusion. The cultural embrace of illusion and celebrity culture have accompanied a growing system of casino capitalism, which creates vast wealth for elites. Corporations have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. Hedges exposes the mechanisms that undermine our democracy and divert us from the economic, environmental, political, and moral collapse around us. A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies, Hedges argues, and we are dying now."
Meant 15M unvetted illegals. They are mostly military aged men, who have no intent to assimilate to our way of life. They are here to receive free everything from the Harris/Biden Administration.
I made a new friend. She's from New Zealand. Shes lived in the US 30+ years. After her husbands death, went back to her homeland. She said the media there really hates President Trump & spews it 24/7. So, she came back to the US, she feels safer here. But, I don't. We're in a dangerous place in our country with q5M unvetted illegals, this Administration is issuing Temporary Protective Status, giving them housing, free everything. What happens after the the year guarantee of this Administration paying their rent of $1500-$2,000 a month for housing, etc. is stopped? I'm afraid we'll see more of what's happening in Aurora, Colorado, TX, IL, New York. If it's happening in these states, it's happening all across America.
Worth reaching out to Joseph and the team at scoop.co.nz they are in the process of transforming their entire model and I thought might be able to provide some awesome support here.
Thank you!
Fantastic piece. Even more relevant now!
Whether or not you are talking up Substack, there's an enormous amount of cogent thinking in here. Thanks.
Thank you. I consider that high praise coming from you.
Sounds great to me.
Hamish I'm sure that you know that for the last several years of overwraught Covid drama (I'm being kind) that the NZ government has been subsidizing NZ media so much that it almost feels like we're in the Soviet Union circa 1974 and the only media that we're allowed to read is Pravda, the truth. And basically the NZ Government has not only claimed to be the one source of truth (source Ardern) but actually have been the one source of truth (in Pravda style of course).
Did they not send any of this funding your way?
I ended up on Substack for your commitment to free speech btw although I do feel that this might be the right to free speech but maybe not the right to be heard. And yes I did follow Glinner here as I figured if he was here then this must be one of the few places that values that free speech. I did that in a few days after a Floridian free speech advocate who ran blog software that I was using (write.as) got in my ear about something that he would not name but that maybe I should stop writing anything about (I'm pretty sure that Cate Spice had been in his ear).
On the topic of making this work for a writer without a name that drags readers here. Typically paid subscribers, if you don't manipulate them with paywalls, run around 4% or so in my experience. You therefore need about 30k subscribers in my estimation to make money here. I can't see myself ever getting to that level and I figure most of the writers that I follow and chat with won't ever get there either. I guess at some stage we'll leave and Substack will head back down the leftie (this was my political side until recently and I still cannot bring myself to vote for Nats or ACT) route where men can be women, Roxanne Gay speaks truth instead of the trans propaganda that she's paid to write and actual left wing dissidents (rather than astro-turf ones) are being rounded up to be put in camps or worse (along with their right wing bretheren) as suggested by no less than Noam Chomsky.
I hope instead that the world takes a turn towards sanity and that derogatory terms such as TERF & anti-vaxxer get consigned to the trash where they belong being manipulations of language by the forces of State even if getting enthusiastic traction with the mindless middle classes of the world. And I hope that Substack continues to make guys like Luke run to Ghost as that would prove that commitment to free speech.
Didn’t know that Substack was partly NZ owned. This makes me extra happy to be here!
Moving from printed media to easily shaped non print digital media. Or as Chris Hedges puts forward in his book Empire of Illusion. The cultural embrace of illusion and celebrity culture have accompanied a growing system of casino capitalism, which creates vast wealth for elites. Corporations have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. Hedges exposes the mechanisms that undermine our democracy and divert us from the economic, environmental, political, and moral collapse around us. A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies, Hedges argues, and we are dying now."
Meant 15M unvetted illegals. They are mostly military aged men, who have no intent to assimilate to our way of life. They are here to receive free everything from the Harris/Biden Administration.
I made a new friend. She's from New Zealand. Shes lived in the US 30+ years. After her husbands death, went back to her homeland. She said the media there really hates President Trump & spews it 24/7. So, she came back to the US, she feels safer here. But, I don't. We're in a dangerous place in our country with q5M unvetted illegals, this Administration is issuing Temporary Protective Status, giving them housing, free everything. What happens after the the year guarantee of this Administration paying their rent of $1500-$2,000 a month for housing, etc. is stopped? I'm afraid we'll see more of what's happening in Aurora, Colorado, TX, IL, New York. If it's happening in these states, it's happening all across America.