Special Holiday Message
"Newsletter" by Skley is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
This week’s newsletter is a special message to our subscribers, reprinted here for informational purposes.
Given the fact we're entering the height of the Holiday Season, we're going to take a break for the next week to enjoy some time with friends and family (and we hope you get the opportunity to do the same). Our next newsletter will be our Year in Review edition on Dec. 30.
This week we're going to talk a little about our plans for 2023. For starters, these newsletters will continue to go out on Friday evenings. It's proven to be an ideal time for our subscribers. We're also going to keep the same format we've been using for the last few months: either a longer essay on a single topic followed by the Odds and Ends, or a more general essay in several sections dealing with a couple different subjects.
We'll also keep the length about the same, roughly between seven and 12 minutes reading time for the average reader. That seems about right for something we send once a week, and it's more than enough time to cover all the necessary ground.
But, as they used to say in the old gadget commercials, there's more. In January, we're going to launch The National Gazette as a Substack publication. Originally, we had hoped to publish it in print, as a broadsheet through direct mail. Unfortunately, the costs of doing so are prohibitive, and to be honest it's not really the way to go any longer anyway, given the widespread use of smartphones and computers now.
Substack distributes content in the same way as we do in these weekly newsletters: by emailing to the subscribers, with two key differences. One is the way posts are archived: at the same time newsletters go out via email, they're also listed as articles on a homepage. (We archive these weekly newsletters on the Institute's website under the MWI Weekly tab.) That not only saves us a step, but it gives readers the opportunity to peruse the published articles much as they do on any magazine or newspaper website.
The other is the availability of a paywall. The publisher has the opportunity to decide what to offer for free, what to offer only to paid subscribers, when to do it and how much to charge. As a general rule, most publishers offer some content for free to give potential subscribers a taste of what the publication is about and put the rest behind the paywall.
Our plan is to offer subscriptions to the Gazette for $5/mo. or $60/yr., which is not only basically the standard on Substack, but aligns with our Institute membership rate of $60/yr. Subscribers to the Gazette will have the option of either joining the Insitute as well, or simply subscribing to the publication. If they choose to do both, it's basically just another way to become a member of the Institute.
Institute members who join directly will, of course, automatically be subscribed to the Gazette as well as any future publications we develop, at no additional cost regardless of any future subscription rates (it's one of the benefits of membership). Whether someone joins through their Gazette subscription or joins the Institute directly, the benefits will be the same, including access to the Forums and Roundtables, which are restricted to our membership.
We still have some technical details to work out on the back end. All funds raised through subscriptions will go directly into the Insititute's operating budget, just as memberships do, so we have to make sure everything is hooked up correctly for accounting and compliance reasons. Fortunately, as it turns out Substack uses the same payments processor as the Institute currently uses, so we don't anticipate any problems.
As I mentioned earlier, these newsletters will continue as before without any changes. They'll continue to be free to subscribers and also publicly available on our website after distribution. Given the fact we've pivoted to more of an essay format, we're debating whether to make them the free weekly offering on the Gazette as well. Since there's no cost to anyone for reading it anywhere, we don't see any ethical problem with going about it that way.
The only obvious drawback we see so far would be double posts to someone who is subscribed to both the newsletter and the Gazette, but that's easily solved by simply removing their email from the newsletter subscription list. Nevertheless, we want to make sure we think it all the way through before committing.
We intend to post two or three original full-length essays per week to the Gazette over and above the weekly newsletter. That rate is largely determined by best practices for email-distributed newsletters. Should readership expand and demand increase, we'll increase the publication rate, but we don't want to overdo it at the start (people get a lot of emails these days).
In addition to the Gazette, we'll continue to publish on the Institute's two blogs, The Town Square and the Members Blog. Posting to the latter is a member benefit, and the content there is member-generated, so there's really no schedule for it. Members can write when and on whatever they please, although there is an editorial process, and we don't grant immediate access to the blog. Posts are submitted for review and approval first.
The Town Square is the official blog of the Institute. We've been holding off on publishing there until we had a clear idea of how to use it. With the pending launch of the Gazette, we've decided its best purpose would be to comment on current events in sort of an editorial format. The ideal length for an online blog on a platform like ours is about 650-800 words, which isn't enough for a full explication but about right to talk about the news.
We'll continue to post links to all our free content to our social media accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (while it lasts). We're also looking to establish a presence on Mastodon, which is similar to Twitter but run in a very different way. In that case, we have to make sure we choose the right server so what we want to do complies with that server's rules, and also fits in with the theme of that particular server.
If you've gotten the impression we've pivoted the Institute to publishing as our central function, you're absolutely right. We founded the Institute on the basis of several assumptions, some of which did not work out the way we anticipated. To be honest, since we were attempting to do something rather unique, there weren't any models for us to actually follow and we had to make a few educated guesses.
In the event, it became clear over time our best service would be as a platform for promoting the Whig view. We still intend to pursue some of our long-held ambitions, most especially the Whig Academy for the training of ethical public servants. But at this stage of our development, it's clear our best course of action is to focus on publishing.
And there is some precedent for creating that kind of organization. A good example is the U.S. Naval Institute, which is a model we think we can emulate, at least in some ways, almost immediately. Hopefully, over time we can expand into publishing books, hosting symposiums, etc. in addition to running our Forums and Roundtables and developing the Academy. But for now, our focus is on doing the most with what we have, where we are.
So, that's the plan for the next year: to concentrate all our efforts on publishing and facilitating the Great Conversation wherever we can. (Substack is also trending toward community-building, which is another reason for us to be there in addition to social media and our own in-house dialog.) It's actually quite exciting. If ever there was a time for our voice, that time is now. Thank you for being on this journey with us.
And with that, I wish you a very pleasant holiday week. We certainly can use more peace, love and understanding [link to YouTube]. So whatever your faith, I hope the Spirit of the Season finds you, comforts you and brings you joy.
See you in two weeks.
Kevin J. Rogers is the executive director of the Modern Whig Institute. He can be reached at director@modernwhig.org. When not engaged with the Institute he publishes independently to Commentatio on Substack.
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The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.
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