I’ve never written an entire newsletter before. I’m also not a big fan of email. And yet I’m starting a newsletter that’s distributed by email. Life takes strange turns. I thought about naming this something like “Ford Explorer” or “Ford Excursion,” but I thought I’d save the Ford Motor Company’s legal department the trouble of writing a cease-and-desist letter. Until I think of something clever, this is the Unnamed Matt Ford Newsletter.
Why does this exist? I first learned about Substack at length when two of my former colleagues at The New Republic went on to do excellent work on this platform full time. Emily Atkin indefatigably covers climate issues over at Heated. Libby Watson sharply navigates our ghoulish health care system over at Sick Note. More recently, I’ve noticed that some journalists who work at newspapers or magazines also use Substack as a way to share their own work with more depth and nuance than is possible on, say, Twitter or Facebook. This format has some attractive possibilities for writers in the digital age, and I’m excited to explore them.1
I’ll start with a weekly schedule while I get myself acclimated to this system. Each newsletter will typically include what I’ve been working on recently at TNR. Most of my writing is on democracy, legal issues, and the Supreme Court, so expect that. Since there may be a delay between an article’s publication there and this newsletter’s distribution to you, it might even give me a chance to include additional thoughts and developments—a Lord of the Rings-like extended edition, if you will.
Additionally, I’ll also highlight work by other journalists that I find interesting and noteworthy. This gives me a chance to briefly discuss stories beyond what I write about at TNR or can fit in a single tweet. I hope to focus on things that aren’t front-page news or trending on social media, but are still worth reading and thinking about. Some newsletters occasionally publish reader feedback. If I receive it, I may try to do the same.
I may tweak this approach in small, gradual ways over time. In the future, this might even include writing about topics that I’m interested in but don’t cover at TNR. Future newsletters could delve into the quest for Scottish independence, the ongoing debate surrounding animal cognition and non-human legal rights, the history of federal criminal code reform, and more. But for now, I’ll keep it fairly straightforward.
If any or all of this sounds interesting to you, please feel free to subscribe. (It’s all free here; subscribe to TNR if you’re interested in paying me.) If you have suggestions, recommendations, or complaints, you can contact me at matt@tnr.com. The first newsletter is coming on Friday, March 19.
Especially footnotes. I love footnotes.