Wisdom on this site is dispensed freely, but a gratuity is always appreciated.
You don’t have to pay for “Words for the Wise,” and for the past year you couldn’t even if you wanted to. Starting on December 1, you can again.
Last month this Substack newsletter celebrated its fourth anniversary of publication. But as its loyal readers know, over the past year there has been only minimal posting. That’s largely because I spent that year developing an online Substack newsletter for my home village of Croton-on-Hudson, a bit north of New York City and tucked between the better known cities of Ossining and Peekskill.
Launching The Croton Chronicle and building a subscriber base for it has taken up nearly all of my free time. I am proud to say that the newsletter has become an integral part of the Croton community, and is now nearing 1000 subscribers (about 28% of them paid; about a quarter of the posts are behind a paywall.)
(I find that particularly heartening since only about 6200 adults live here.)
“Words for the Wise,” on the other hand, is free to anyone who wants to read it. That made me feel somewhat less guilty about putting it on a hiatus. I made a promise when I launched it that no one would ever have to pay if they did not want to, I have kept to it, and I will not break it, ever.
Nevertheless, until last year it was possible for someone to pay for a subscription if they wanted to. Why would anyone want to? To support the journalism and commentary featured here. I realize that not everyone comes for the commentary—punditry is cheap, and yet probably still a bargain even when it is free—but a lot of people come for the journalism, which I would like to think is worth paying for even if you don’t have to.
I hope readers have noticed that “Words” is slowly coming back, both the commentary and the journalism. One thing the site specializes in is investigations of misconduct in academia, especially the sciences. I just published such a report on an alleged toxic lab at the Florida Museum last week. That kind of reporting is tough and risky, but I have been doing it for nine years now. It’s good to have a place to publish it where editors fearful of lawsuits are not calling the shots.
(See this link for a roster of investigations over the years.)
I have also published some political commentary in recent months, including the obligatory punditry about Trump’s victory; some months back there was even a cat story that proved to be pretty popular. I will leave it to readers, especially fairly new subscribers, to peruse the site and see the kinds of things one can find here. I hope you will agree there is a lot of variety.
So here is the Breaking News: On December 1, I am going to turn the payment option back on. Again, that does not mean you have to pay! But it does mean that you can if you want to. It would be downright mean of me to try and stop you any longer, especially now that I am posting here again.
I’m sure you realize that I am not making any promises about how often posts will appear. That will depend on how often I think I have something original to say. But like most journalists and writers, I tend to think that pretty often. I will try to restrain myself to a certain extent, but a rough guess would be that I will find something to write about roughly once each week.
I know that you already subscribe to a bunch of things, including other Substack newsletters, some of which you pay for. So I will not be hurt if you continue to read “Words for the Wise” for free. Will I post more often if more people pay for their subs?
Maybe! Or maybe not. It’s a free country and both you and I can do what we want. At least, it was a free country last time I checked. Who knows how much longer that will last.
Let me know if you have any questions or if you have any problems paying, or not paying. Most importantly, profuse thanks to those loyal readers who have stuck with Words for the Wise these past four years, and a hearty welcome to those who have discovered this site more recently.
All the best, Michael Balter
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