Thanks a lot, Elon
I called him a petulant child and I stand by it.
Twitter’s uber-billionaire CEO declared a war-of-sorts on Substack since the platform (where I am publishing posts) soft launched “Notes,” which appears similar to Twitter. Because Elon Musk’s ego gets bruised rather easily, he censored all posts referencing or linking to Substack.
What that means, at least for now, is you cannot like, reply or retweet posts which either mention the word “substack” or include a link to the platform. That affects independent publications like Fourth Estate 48 and other local outlets like Arizona Agenda, Border Chronicle, Lookout PHX and many national ones too.
It also means embedding tweets into posts is no longer allowed (at least for the most part), which is something relied on by many, myself included.
Twitter is a cesspool for the most part – especially since Musk took over last year, but it’s also one of the biggest drivers of traffic and new subscriptions for Fourth Estate 48.
Some of my most-read posts and those that yielded the most subscriptions happened as a result of the “bird app” like this story which was picked up by many national news sources:
Since I launched this newsletter1 eight months ago, more than 1,000 people have subscribed, which honestly is really freaking awesome and I’m so grateful for everyone who has signed up thus far.
However, if Twitter doesn’t reverse its decision to censor Substack posts, my potential growth will take a huge hit and it’s likely I won’t be able to keep doing this much longer.
As of April 10, 1,064 people subscribe with 183 paying. It’s not where I wanted to be by this point, and likely also won’t be financially feasible for this to be full-time work after the one-year mark in August.
I always thought that could be the case, and I don’t really want to have to find a “real” job since I love requesting public records and writing about them. It’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had and that’s because of all of you readers.
Without Twitter’s resources to help me grow, I am relying on you all to share my posts and site with friends, family or colleagues.
And this is as good of a reason as any to upgrade from a free subscription to paid. It’s at $7.50/month or $75/year currently, but if you’d like to pay a different amount that’s better for your budget please reach out and I can work something out with you.
There is so much more to write about in this crazy news-making state, and even more documents to request that government officials don’t want out there and I want to do it as long as possible.
Lastly, if your company or office wants to get a group subscription let me know as well and rates will be discounted depending how many subscriptions you would want.
Musk and Twitter even took the ridiculous step to redirect searches for “substack” to “newsletter” so people can’t even find old posts that mention the platform.
I copied this substack page and sent it out to ten friends that like to follow Arizona news and politics. I’ve done the same for the Arizona Agenda. Everyone who cares about truthful and accurate reporting and good investigative journalism and, honestly, hot political gossip should commit to encouraging at least 5-10 friends to become paid subscribers. As even our local papers are bought up by huge conglomerates, it’s one way we can be assured that fair and accurate reporting can exist. It’s your civic duty. If we all find paid subscribers, we can keep these publications alive.