Dear Readers,
I will be moving Today’s Edition Newsletter to a new platform. This special edition explains what will happen and why I am moving. I hope you will take five minutes to read about the changes so that you can help me with the transition.
For those of you who just want to continue receiving the newsletter and don’t care how it is published, you don’t need to do anything. I will move your subscription to my new platform a week from today. But for the reasons explained below, it would be helpful to me if you make the affirmative choice to add your email to my new subscription list.
The newsletter will continue to be free to everyone who wants to receive it on a free basis. I view this newsletter as part of my civic duty and as a gift to my family and friends. It didn’t start out as a revenue generating venture, and it isn’t meant to be in the future. Still, as explained below, it has grown to consume a significant part of my daily routine. Voluntary paid subscriptions can help me allocate my time among competing demands.
I have decided to move the newsletter to the same platform used by Professor Heather Cox Richardson—“Substack.” Many readers of Today’s Edition are subscribers to Professor Richardson’s newsletter, so the transition should be easy for them.
Why am I moving to a new platform?
First, I currently pay several thousand dollars a year for Constant Contact to send the newsletter to about 30,000 people on a daily basis. On Substack, I will not pay for the privilege of sending the newsletter.
Second, the most frequent question I receive from readers is, “Why did you take me off your subscription list?” The answer is “I didn’t.” In virtually all instances, the newsletter has been diverted to a spam folder or is being blocked upstream by your internet provider. (Readers who use Comcast and Earthlink are painfully aware of the struggles we have endured to circumvent the email filters for those providers.) By moving to Substack, readers can always go directly to the Substack website to read the newsletter if it doesn’t show up in their inbox. Hence, the “missing newsletter” problem is solved!
Third, many readers ask, “Do you have an archive?” Currently, the answer is “No.” With Substack, the answer is “Yes.” The archive is available to all readers. (I will be migrating past issues to the Substack archive as time permits.)
Finally, Substack allows readers to make voluntary donations to support the work of Today’s Edition. If you choose to become a paying subscriber, that is wonderful—but please do not feel pressure to do so! As I said, I am trying to organize my time during my so-called “retirement”, so paid subscriptions will allow me to allocate more time to the newsletter. But the work of the newsletter will continue no matter what, so don’t worry about the newsletter going away. It won’t.
Let me add a caveat about paid subscriptions. For reasons I can’t explain, the newsletter has a large and loyal readership among elderly Americans who live in retirement communities and assisted living facilities, who are suffering from disabilities, or who are living alone after the loss of a spouse. Many of those readers have become friends, counselors, and sources of inspiration to me. I do not want anyone who is living on a fixed income or otherwise struggling with life challenges to pay for a subscription. I know who you are, and if you pay for a voluntary subscription, I will refund your money lovingly and with respect. I am honored that you read the newsletter. That is more than enough.
So, what happens next?
As I said, if you choose, you need not do anything to continue your subscription. A week from today, I will transfer my Constant Contact subscription list to Substack.
But it would be helpful to me if you make the switch yourself. That will let me know that you are an active reader and want to receive the newsletter. For readers who don’t make the switch themselves, I can’t tell if they are still reading (or want) the newsletter. The last thing I want to do is to clog the inboxes of a former readers with unopened newsletters.
There are two steps to make the switch to Today’s Edition on Substack:
- First, sign up for Today’s Edition on Substack here: Today's Edition Newsletter (substack.com). You will be directed to a page that has a blue “Subscribe” button. Click the blue “Subscribe button,” then choose your subscription level: “None = Free; Paid = Choose a level.
- Second, unsubscribe from the Constant Contact version of the newsletter by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this newsletter.
Finally, since I have moved the newsletter to a public site, you should feel free to share the newsletter. Each newsletter will have a “Share” button in the footer.
Thanks, and I look forward to seeing all of you on Substack!
