Hello everyone,

Now that it’s been half a year or so since I “officially” launched Blood in the Machine as a full-time newslettering concern, I thought it time for a status update on the enterprise: How it’s all working, how it stacks up against a 9-5 media job, what the numbers are looking like, and what’s it’s been like living at the whims of platforms, patrons, and algorithms. It wound up being long and detailed and occasionally weirdly personal, so if that’s your thing, buckle up.

First of all, thank you to everyone who’s read, shared, commented on, or otherwise boosted this work. You’ve helped this project grow at a rate that has at times legitimately taken me by surprise. And an extra hearty and machine-rattling thanks to each and every one of you who support this work with your pocketbooks; I really wouldn’t be writing any of this without you. When I was considering what to do next after getting laid off by the LA Times and its tech billionaire owner, I wasn’t sure if going independent was a long-term possibility, and you have demonstrated that it very much is. It’s already been quite a ride.

As we’ll discuss more a bit further down, this paid subscription/modern patronage model is a weird beast; an unruly assemblage of boons and burdens. One major plus, though, is having concrete knowledge that people care enough about a project to materially support it, and then getting the opportunity to directly engage, discuss, and share that work with them. It’s great. I’d like to find even more ways of expanding this participatory element. For an independent publication focused on the people facing down the maw of the tech oligarchs and their machinery, it’s been a real pleasure interfacing with all of you, whether you’re an artist in West Virginia, an engineer in Silicon Valley, an academic in England, or a farmer in Southeast Asia.

And if you’ve been thinking about becoming a paid supporter, now is a good time, for the reasons I will explicate in greater detail below.

With that, let’s get into it.

The state of the Blood in the Machine

There were really three looming questions that made me most anxious about the prospect of going all-in on a newsletter, the first of which was, predictably, ‘Is this in fact a viable way to generate enough income to pay ...