A return?

It's been a while... Sorry about that.

Hello there. Yes, it’s me. Oh, don’t worry, I forgive you if you’d forgotten. Yes, I do still have a newsletter and, it appears you’d forgotten to unsubscribe. (Sucker.)

Checking the calendar, it’s been a whole year since I last posted. So much for doing that regularly.

I note my last piece published was on rising antisemitism in America. It appears as if nothing much happened in the last year, other than, I suppose, things getting even worse. Grand.

So, what happened? Why’d I stop posting?

Totally fair questions. It comes down to a few things: laziness, stress, and work-life balance.

In the past year, I’ve taken on more professional work. I still write for The Media Leader (whose audience, while as modest as any trade publication’s is, I’m happy to say has grown substantially), and over the past few months, I’ve also become the executive producer for the outlet’s podcast. That has taken up more of my time but also more of my energy, and when getting home from a long day of writing and producing, I have found it difficult to, well, continue writing and producing for you.

Part of that is because I have been bad at allowing for distraction. In my efforts to relax after work, I go on Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, and more recently Threads and Bluesky. And, would you look at that, it’s 10:30pm already and I haven’t even cracked into my book! (At least I have been reading a great deal more.)

I have recently deleted practically every social media app off my phone. In an admittedly self-indulgent Story post on Instagram, I explained why. To condense what was a rather long tirade: They are bad products; over-saturated with advertising and under-saturated with actual friends; it is a waste of time and poor for my mental health.

I’ve concluded I want to spend less time doing wasteful things like watching Stories and Reels and more time doing things I love. That includes writing, especially to an audience that cares to take the time to read text that is greater than five hundred characters.

And so here I am, back in your inbox.

What is the future of this newsletter/blog? That is a little unclear at the moment. But I do have some ideas.

While writing is a solitary endeavor, I would prefer not to do it alone. To that end, some things are in the works, which are most likely to involve an altogether different product. More on that to come…

Since I started this Substack blog, the platform has changed and the publishing industry has changed. As news publishers have had a tough year, laying off a great deal of excellent journalists (and in some cases shutting down altogether) because of financial pressures, there is an increasingly large opportunity to reach people through the tried and true practice of writing a newsletter. We’re now even at the point where Substack isn’t just used by freelance journalists or armchair analysts, but by actual news outlets. In the UK, for example, local press is attempting a revitalization entirely on Substack.

I want to be a part of that. I want to spend my time writing on here about things I believe are of great importance. To me, that includes:

• Public policy that impacts people’s lives;

• How news media frames stories and influences our opinions;

• Where culture and business interests intersect.

I’ll keep you updated on my plans for that in a short bit.

But for now, hello again, and thanks for forgetting to leave.

J