An update on The Terminal
I'm going paid. Here's why you might want to sign up.
Folks, The Terminal is going paid. If you like what I’ve been writing over the past few months, you can now throw me a little bit of coin and get even more of it.
For me, this is in no small part an experiment. I want to see what I can do with this newsletter when it has an income and can therefore be a sustainable side business for me. I’ll get into what that’s actually going to look like, but at its most basic that means more posts, more varied content, and more reporting.
For those of you who have been subscribed for the past little while: first of all, thank you! I’ve really appreciated your feedback and input. The many responses I got when I floated the idea of a subscription offering were very kind.
On the free tier, you’ll still be getting a weekly update on a Friday (like these) plus the occasional longer post. So if you want to keep getting that and nothing more, you don’t need to do anything.
I’m also not going to go on a huge promotional tour about paid subscriptions, and will keep emails about it to my free subscribers to a minimum — I want to respect your time and your inboxes!
Read on and I’ll talk you through what I have in mind for The Terminal going forward. If you’re already onboard and want to start giving me money, you can subscribe below.
If you need a little cajoling, allow me to cajole you.
Why subscribe?
The Terminal is about the unusual, marginal and esoteric in the world of business, tech, politics and culture.
The most popular posts tend to lie at the intersection of those topics. If my inbox is anything to go by, you folks particularly like stories about the emergent internet economy and the (often strange!) ways it influences online culture and society more broadly.
I want to dig into this more deeply. That will look like:
More reporting. Currently, this newsletter is mostly me sounding off. That won’t stop, of course, but I want to be a little more ambitious and chase meatier stories.
More commentary. If you like the esoterica beat, there’s never been a better time than now. I want to dive behind the headlines and provide a richer understanding.
Interviews. I want to speak to smart, informative people about the topics readers find interesting.
Community. The best Substack newsletters I subscribe to almost justify their price on the community they build around them alone. I want to be responsive to the sorts of things you want to read, and to create a space where interesting people can come together and talk about them.
The nitty gritty
Substack gives you a dazzling array of tools for subscriptions and sales which I’m sure are much more interesting to someone with more of a hustle mindset than I possess. I will keep things simple: The Terminal will be $7 a month or $70 a year.
Substack by default allows you to become a ‘founding member’ where you can set a higher yearly price. You can do that if you want. I won’t stop you! You won’t get any additional features, but you’ll have the inalienable right to treat me like I owe you something.
As I mentioned earlier, you’ll still get my weekly wrap every Friday whether you pay or don’t, plus a longer post every now and then. But if you do join the club, you’ll get at least two additional posts per week.
Thank you!
Once again, a huge thank you to everyone that has subscribed so far, and a thanks in advance for those who are about to join the club. I’ve very much enjoyed writing this newsletter thus far, and have really appreciated your emails.
If you’ve liked what I’ve been doing thus far but aren’t ready to pay, that’s fine! The Terminal mostly spreads by word of mouth, and you can show your appreciation by sharing:
Onward!
James Hennessy