We've made it one year!

Happy anniversary to this newsletter.

On August 10, 2022, Fourth Estate 48 launched on the promise of bringing you public records you weren’t seeing anywhere else with the hopes of being your go-to spot for records in Arizona.

After one year, I think I have delivered on both of those fronts, but there is still so much room to grow.

I’ve definitely learned a lot about operating a newsletter all by myself. It has been challenging and rewarding and even though I’m not where I want to be financially with this newsletter, I can still say this past year of reporting has been my favorite in my career.

Here’s the good news and the bad news:

Good:

I am going to continue publishing public records, holding the Arizona government accountable and writing for this newsletter and I won’t be raising prices just yet, though that is still on the table.

Bad:

Because I can’t afford to continue doing this full-time right now I am going to have to face reality and look for other means of income while doing this on the side. Luckily that doesn’t mean things will change much with publishing since I never committed to publishing five times a week. I will likely just go from three days a week to two –– a change I made after taking two months off for personal reasons. After this week, you can expect posts on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Despite not bringing in that much in income (and learning just how much in taxes I have to pay) I’m still so excited to have been able to make it a full year and to hit 1,200 total subscribers without much marketing. Thank you to those who have paid for a subscription and everyone who shares my posts.

If you’re still on a free subscription and would like to upgrade, hit the button below. Feel free to take some time looking at posts from my archive, but just know I have added a paywall on any posts older than six months. Reply to this email if you want to look at any in the meantime, and I’d be happy to grant you access.

I don’t want any new posts to be behind a paywall. I’ve toyed around a bit with it, but it doesn’t yield as many new paid subscribers as keeping it all free so as long as more people pay to keep this newsletter alive I won’t have to hide posts away from all the free subscribers. I will continue to keep archived posts behind a paywall after six months though.

Let’s take a look back:

Here are some stories Fourth Estate 48 published in the past year that does a good job summing up the type of posts you’ll get being a free or a paid subscriber.

Elections

A few simple requests turned into pretty big stories where I just attempted to fact check political candidates during their crusade against voting by mail only to show they, in fact, vote by mail nearly every election.

Education

Whether it’s updating you on the staff of the new administration or bringing you zip code data of students who enrolled in the universally expanded ESA program, there are plenty of education-related records requests to publish.

Contracts

This past year, I’ve found a niche of looking into government contracts and broken some stories showcasing potential corruption or shadiness coming from Democrats and Republicans, alike.

Calendars and badge swipes

Where else can you find quick posts shedding light on what your elected/appointed leaders are up to by using their public calendars and in some cases their badge swipes looking at whether they even show up to work every day?

Meta

I’ve sent many public records requests about public records and have written stories about how long some agencies take to fulfill requests and also one about a loophole in the state’s public records law. This newsletter launched with a post looking at Gov. Doug Ducey’s office’s handling of requests.

Miscellaneous + fun

A legislator didn’t like his official photo and sent a reply-all, license plates that don’t make it to the finish line, name for a snow plow, diving a little deeper than other publications. Truly anything can be a public record and the more fun I have with this newsletter the better. I received the most subscriptions for stories that fall under this category so please send me ideas to keep things light.

What you’re saying

It wouldn’t be possible to keep writing about public records without all of you readers and I know there are many of you out there who don’t know about this newsletter or who haven’t subscribed yet because nearly all of my posts get more readers than my total number of subscribers so please help keep this going. Don’t just take it from me, here’s what many of you have said over the past year:

There are state lawmakers, lobbyists, consultants, former governors, members of congress, teachers, many attorneys, communications members and so many more every day Arizonans subscribe to Fourth Estate 48 and I’m hoping many more will.