The Road Ahead
Yes, I'm alive. And yes, the e-newsletter is ending.
Hey folks!
Yes, I'm alive. No, I haven't been publishing my e-newsletter as I had planned.
The very short explanation is that I got a new job, one that puts me in direct conflict with most forms of journalism and with being too loud on the internet.
It's a government role, and as such, I'm beholden to legally binding oaths of employment and, on the other end, to journalistic ethics around conflicts of interest.
So unfortunately, I think this is going to bring The Lagrange Point to a sudden and abrupt end.
I'd mulled the possibility of keeping it going in more of its geek form, pre-political turn, but the truth is that it is also a shitload of work to put these e-newsletters together, with, if I'm being very honest, little to no reward.
That's not a slam on you guys. No, if anything, the people who actually open these emails and tell me they're into them are everything.
The problem is there's only about three or four dozen of you.
And I do think that I've tapped out in terms of subscriber growth on this front.
It's my belief, borne out in conversation with people, that the current state of journalism is pretty untenable. There are too many disparate, tiny, independent blogs, newsletters, substacks, etc. competing for too few eyeballs. And on the user end, it's just become overwhelming to try to sort through it all.
I also have to ask myself: am I bringing something to the table that is a worthy product to attract those eyeballs?
Not always. If ever.
A lot of the time I'm funneling my best ideas to areas where I know I'll at least get paid for them. That lessens the quality of this e-newsletter. Other times I'm just exhausted and only put together a slapdash rant or two.
This feels like a time I need to be deliberate with where I put my energy, if only for my own sanity.
For the first time in literally years, I finally finished a piece of short fiction and sent it away for consideration. I'm also working on a planning document for a local comic festival, in the vein of Panel One or Toronto Comic Arts Festival. And I'm taking a lot more time for my hobbies, especially miniature painting, D&D and video games.
All of this is making me feel a bit more grounded and alive in a time where it can be difficult to be either.
So what comes next here, if anything?
I'm not deleting the e-newsletter. It'll stay intact, along with the archives of past issues. And I may yet have an idea for something else.
But for the foreseeable future, I'd say that if you want to keep in touch, you can follow me on BlueSky (and, currently, ONLY on BlueSky; I'm barely checking Facebook or Instagram these days, and on the verge of deleting both). You can also find me on Discord if you want to privately chat. I have regular video chats with a few friends, and it's fun times. I'm also starting up some penpal correspondence with a couple of people.
I'll also leave you with a few outlets I follow pretty regularly:
admin
Tom Sandborn
Condé Nast
Rolling Stone
I know, if you told me 10 years ago that Rolling Stone and Wired would be two of the best progressive news outlets in America, I would have called you a liar.
I want to say thank you again for everyone who subscribed, and especially those who wrote such kind feedback for the Lagrange Point. It was an attempt to try something. It didn't quite work.
I'm not sorry for that. And I'm looking forward to what comes next.
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