Most of what I know, I learned online, in the 1990s, and by accident.
As an old millennial, I was around for the birth of AOL, MySpace, Facebook, gmail, blogging, Twitter, and The Rap Board. My name wasn’t so unusual that it would get snapped up immediately, but if I waited, “daveweigel” might be taken, and I would have to settle for some less dignified handle, like “daveweigel1” or, worse, “daveweigel2.”
So: When a social media network launches, and I have confirmed that it isn’t a sophisticated North Korean op, I sign up. It’s been more two years since I first learned of Substack, via Matt Taibbi’s conversation with Noam Chomsky. Taibbi himself told me about it, and because I didn’t (and don’t) cover the media, I never wrote a story about this new creators-first publishing outlet. If there was Substack stock, I’d have bought it, but nobody gets into journalism because they know how to make money.
Why launch a Substack now? Since 2018 I’ve edited The Trailer, the Washington Post’s newsletter, and I am not going independent or launching a regular newsletter of my own.
But: Since 2001, for literally half my life, I’ve had a blog under my name. That started as HTML, which I updated by hand every day, continued to blogspot, and ended on WordPress. I’m keeping the domain, but haven’t used the site in years, and am eventually* turning it into a clearinghouse for stuff I’ve written elsewhere. I’ve included a link to the site in my Twitter handle since, oof, 2008 or so, but it doesn’t fulfill the old functions of social media. For years, if I had a random thought I wanted instant reactions to, I would tweet it or write it on Facebook. Since 2018, if I had a thought about movies, I’d put it on Letterboxd.
Then came Substack. It seems nice. After I registered this newsletter, a bunch of people who follow me on Twitter automatically subscribed to it. Thanks! I don’t plan to publish on a schedule, but I’ll write stuff here from time to time. Or maybe Medium? No, probably here.
In conclusion, buy my book.
- DW
*ha, ha