Introducing "A Word For the Wise"

Another newsletter? Why??

Whaling off Goto, from the woodblock series Oceans of Wisdom, by Katsushika Hokusai

So, here is Michael Balter on Substack. Those who know me, or who have been reading Balter’s Blog (publishing since 2008) for any length of time, might not be surprised that I am at least partly migrating onto a new platform. Over the past 5+ years, the blog has served largely as a platform for my #MeToo reporting, which has been as controversial as it has been effective in exposing bullies and sexual predators. But recently, as I have begun expanding the blog’s topics beyond the narrow #MeToo focus, I realize that I need a new readership and a fresh forum from which to share thoughts, pontificate, report, analyze, and engage in the kind of anti-pundit punditry that has come to characterize my comments on social media.

I also realize that while the blog has provided me the luxury of saying whatever I want without the filter of editors, lawyers (at least until the last 10 months), and concerns about popularity, that freedom has come at the price of making a real living from journalism. After teaching journalism to undergraduates for a year at City College of New York (following on from seven years of teaching at New York University and Boston University), I, along with some 400 City University of New York adjunct instructors and professors, was laid off, collateral damage of the coronavirus pandemic.

As a now independent journalist (after 25 years at Science magazine), I am faced with a choice: Going back into the freelance scramble for assignments, trying to convince editors that my ideas are worthy of publication (and will attract clicks, which is what it is mostly about these days); or, going fully independent and monetizing my reporting and writing directly with my readers. Thus, this foray into the “newsletter economy.”

I think I can safely say, at this point at least, that I have read as many pieces about Substack as I have read articles on Substack. Most of those articles are about how much money Substack writers are or are not making, whether they are complicit with the writings of other Substack writers (eg, those who use the platform to express their transphobia or other forms of bigotry), who got a secret deal to come over to the platform (Glenn Greenwald, Matty Yglesias, moi?), along with deep dives into what Substack means for the future of journalism, or what the future of journalism means for Substack.

Only a few of the pieces I have seen discuss the new freedom that newsletter writers can find on a platform like this. Of course, as I discussed in the Columbia Journalism Review article linked to above (and here), we bloggers have always known that freedom, but of course we have had no way to get paid for it. Now we do. After all, newsletter writers, including the wealthiest and most exalted Substack writer, are bloggers too, as much as some might want us to forget that (and as much as some journalists and editors want us to think that bloggers are not real journalists.

(As regular readers of Balter’s Blog know, my #MeToo reporting on that platform has led to the forced resignation or outright termination of a significant number of academics, including the president of a university and other leading scientists.)

Peter Rathjen, disgraced former Vice-Chancellor and president of the University of Adelaide, whose grievous misconduct was exposed by a reporter

So, here we all are, here on Substack. You, the reader and prospective subscriber, and me, the publisher/editor/reporter/writer. What will this newsletter be about, and why should you read it regularly?

Well, I can’t answer that question precisely, which is why I am giving all new subscribers 60 days before they have to pay anything at all (and then it’s only $5 each month, a bargain, if I say so myself, for the musings of a journalist with 43 years of experience.

By not answering the question precisely, I am going against all advice of those who have turned advising newsletter into a cottage industry (some of whom have started their own Substack newsletters just for that purpose!) The words to the wise of those consultants is that each newsletter should have a clear focus, so readers will zoom in on topic areas they are interested in.

But, as you will have noticed, this newsletter is called “Words for the Wise.” That’s because I am going to assume that its readers are already wise, and won’t mind a little unpredictability, including in the publishing schedule (although I am hoping to be able to do a couple of posts each week, at least.)

Yeah, Balter, but what are you really going to write about? Tell us or we won’t come back.

Okay. I am going to write about the media and journalism, maybe on Mondays, in which case I will call those posts Media Monday; I am going to write about human evolution, archaeology, and anthropology, just as I did for Science for so many years—I might call that #FossilFriday and join the science nerds in celebration of that day; I am going to write about travel and food, just as I did for so many years for Bon Appetit, Islands, Travel &Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, etc; I will write about politics, at least when I think I have something unique to say (don’t we all think that?); and I will write about why some people set themselves on fire as a protest against injustice, as part of an ongoing series of posts about courage and cowardice.

In other words, I will write about anything I damn well please. And there will be little financial pressure on me, the writer, or you, the reader, because I don’t need to make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars doing this like the major players do. Three hundred subscribers, combined with a little freelancing and my social security pension, will give me all I need to hang out in the garden with my wife, feed our two beautiful cats, and buy some books on Kindle to keep my insatiable reading going, plus some occasional travel of course.

But please try the 60 day trial offer, and see if you like what I report and write. If you do, tell your friends. And if you like what you are reading after 60 days but don’t want to pay or don’t have enough money to pay, just send me an email and I will give you a free lifetime subscription. Fair enough?

Please subscribe to “Words for the Wise.” If you don’t, we won’t get the expensive cat food he likes to buy us but can’t really afford.