Shareholder report: 18 months

A growing community for independent writing

Your boy at Ottawa Bluesfest, July 13

1. Crowd surfing

Eighteen months after I sent my first post on April 19, 2022, this newsletter continues to reach an ever-larger audience. At this writing I have 18,994 total subscribers. That number has grown 66% since the beginning of 2023. Most of those subscribers don’t pay, but I’m pleased with the number who do, and that’s growing too. My paid subscriber count has increased 48% since the start of the year.

I am so grateful for your attention. I tell people it feels like crowd-surfing (which I did actually do a couple of times in my misspent youth): I throw myself off the stage and thousands of readers lift me up.

I will always encourage readers to consider becoming paid supporters, simply because this is my job now and I try to do it well. Here’s the button that will allow you to upgrade if you like, at $5 a month or $50 a year.

But I care a lot about the bigger number too, so please don’t fret if you’re not ready or able to pay — or if you simply don’t think this product is worth your money. Those are all reasonable considerations. (Incidentally if you’re not able to pay, let me know by replying to one of the post notification emails you get from me. I sometimes give out free passes.) We are now a community, soon 20,000 strong, diverse in background and perspective, always eager to learn and think. We will keep growing. People who make news need to talk to an audience this big and thoughtful. You give me clout.

I made a few decisions early. I decided not to pretend every day is a crisis. I decided not to lie to you about people I disagree with. I decided not to cast myself as a hero in some fake morality play. In the early years of the National Post the editors called columnists “egos,” and too many of us worked to earn the label. Later I began to understand that my opinion about a story isn’t always the most interesting part of the story. I designed this as a place where, on most days, all of us could shout less. That’s why the second thing I wrote here was a long interview with a politician most of you had never heard of. It’s still one of the pieces I’m proudest of writing. I’m too old to froth at the mouth for tip money. Theoretically at some point we grow up.

Of course this newsletter is mostly concerned with Canadian politics. I try to focus on ideas about governing well and news about governing poorly, because public administration is harder than politics and it matters more. Winning is exciting, but to some extent it’s automatic. Every election produces winners. Not every election produces thoughtful government.

I also write about international relations because surely by now we know the sea of troubles doesn’t stop at our shores. I write about science and ideas because I always have, and about art because I’m in awe of people who make art. I file regularly — 170 posts as of yesterday, more than two a week — so you can skip the stuff that doesn’t interest you and still feel satisfied.

By far the most ambitious writing I’ve done in the last six months was The End of Media, a four-part series of essays on the decline of traditional news organizations, the rise of social media, and the changes governments and other large organizations have made to make themselves heard in the resulting blizzard of information. Response to the series has been overwhelming. I’ve taken the paywall off the first instalment so you can read and share it. The other chapters, behind a subscriber paywall, are here.

I’m also proud of a long article about Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a Mexican chemist and lucha libre wrestling fan whose Acceleration Consortium at the UofT is using artificial intelligence to speed up the discovery of new materials. This spring the Acceleration Consortium received a $200 million federal grant, the largest grant any Canadian university has received from any source. I’ve taken the paywall off this one, too, so you can read and share it.

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2. Feeling heard

This season I integrated the Paul Wells Show podcast more seamlessly into the newsletter. Paid subscribers get access to the most complete version of each episode, with detailed show notes, bonus content and no ads.

The podcast is harder for me than writing. It has more moving parts, needs more logistical work. Some potential guests are comically reluctant. And this year we’re down two sponsors, a situation I’m happy to consider changing if we can find a good fit.

I keep making the podcast because it attracts a different audience and because listeners who spend almost an hour with each episode are the most engaged audience you could imagine. The faith of my main organizational partners, the Munk School, Antica Productions and the National Arts Centre, is inspiring. Guests and listeners tell me the rest of this crazy world doesn’t offer enough opportunities to hear thoughtful conversation. I’m happy to fill some of that void.

To let everyone hear what the podcast is like, I’ve taken the paywall off my favourite episode of the season to date, an interview with British Columbia premier David Eby. If you find it interesting, please tell other people.

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3. Next steps

This newsletter doesn’t aim to replace your daily news diet. Even as its audience and influence keep growing, I will indulge the freedom of writing what I want, not what I think you want. So there will be more articles about jazz musicians, though I’ll be lucky if any comes out as well as my profile of Montreal singer Caity Gyorgy. The world is full of people firing message and content at you through a digital cannon; I assume you’re here to read something less frenzied and mercenary. We’ll keep doing that.

I think we’re overdue to gather. I’m looking at options for an Ottawa celebration, with several guests, some light-hearted discussion of serious things, and invitations open, in the first instance, to my subscribers. More on that soon.

And I’m starting to run up against the limits of my logistical ability, so in the new year I plan to hire a producer to handle logistics, correspondence, guest chase for the podcast, and audience development. The job will to some extent be what the person makes of it. Maybe develop a network of stringers who can write about news in their area when it happens? I feel like that would be handy to have during a federal election campaign. Anyway, the goal is to find the overlap between doing more and still the sort of thing people look for in the Paul Wells newsletter. This paragraph isn’t the posting for the producer job, and I’m far from being ready to start interviewing, but I’m confident enough about needing and being able to use help that I thought I’d tell you about it now.

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4. How you can help

You’re already helping by reading this. If you’re ready to become a paying subscriber — $5 a month, $50 a year — I won’t ever make it hard for you. In fact, here’s the button:

My other request is simple enough: talk or write about what you see here. For me as for so many independent writers, reader awareness is still the main limit on subscriber growth. When you share one of my posts or podcast episodes, send it to one friend or blast it out on X or LinkedIn, you might help friends who’ve been wondering where I’ve been.

As the kids say, you help me when you normalize independent writing. I’d be grateful if colleagues at other news organizations would write or talk about what they read here, tear a strip off me (with a link!), amplify or challenge an argument. We should all do more of that with one another’s writing. I’m grateful that 90 other Substack newsletters recommend me, and that some friends and colleagues are doing an extraordinary job of spreading the word (here’s my reader referral leaderboard).

Writing for you is the opportunity of a lifetime. Thanks once again. Onward.