We need to talk about money
Why upgrade to paid?
Hi. From this weekend, I'm going paid – but don't go away. I'll still be doing a free newsletter.
So why upgrade? Well, journalism is never free and if you aren't paying for the product you are the product. My substack is free from all the nasties: intrusive adverts, creepy proprietors, billionaires laundering their reputations. But that means I have to ask you for a cup of coffee a month to keep this show on the road as I leave corporate media. I think it’s worth it. Take a look at my home page: what you see is what you'll get and more.
Here's the deal:
FREE: One newsletter per week
PAID: £3.50 per month/ £35 annual:
At least one additional column per week
Spoken word audio pieces
Diary# columns on the way we live now
longer essays
podcasts
chance to comment and join the community
ENDOWMENT: £550
Endowment subscribers will be invited to a welcome one-to-one lunch with me. Plus exclusive access to my books - including my next, chapter by chapter, when commissioned. Unique subscriber salons to develop the project. And most important: my eternal gratitude.
“Iain Macwhirter’s writing and broadcasting on politics have been the benchmark by which many of us judge our own, more modest, contributions.” — Kevin McKenna, Observer
I’ve done my time. I was a BBC political TV and radio presenter for 25 years, including 10 years in the Westminster Lobby. I’ve been an award-winning columnist on national newspapers. I have written books and documentary films. But the world is changing and the need for genuinely independent thinking is greater than ever.
Newspapers are increasingly driven by clicks and cancel culture. Social media has saturated the public sphere with bigotry of left and right. As George Orwell said,“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”