Twelve months later, there are 49,604 people subscribed to Platformer’s free list, and you regularly open this newsletter at a rate that far exceeds in the industry average. When I started Platformer with the mailing list I accumulated while writing my previous newsletter, there were around 24,000 of you. That support has come on the back of growth that surpassed my highest expectations for year one. I’m hopeful that your continued support will allow me to expand the business soon, in ways I’ll discuss later in this post. It affords me a good salary, covers my health care, and pays for the various expenses that come with running a small business. Platformer is, thanks to your support, the best job I’ve ever had. My hope is that this piece offers some texture to ongoing discussions about how the creator economy and traditional journalism intersect, and proves useful both to journalists considering making a move like this and readers who are curious about whether this model can offer a more sustainable path for journalism than the rocky one we’ve been on lately. Today I wanted to tell you all how it’s going, what I’ve learned, and how I hope the business will evolve in year two. Help me build a more sustainable, replicable model for independent journalists working to hold power to account.A year ago, I quit the best job I ever had to start Platformer. Your subscription to Platformer helps chart a path forward for journalism outside the ad-supported, what-time-is-the-Super-Bowl web. In some cases, employees learned of their own layoffs from our reporting. More recently, Platformer broke a series of major stories about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Casey produced a series of investigative reports about content moderation in America that became a finalist for the 2020 National Magazine Award for reporting, and helped lead to a $52 million settlement with Facebook moderators who developed PTSD on the job. Expect plenty of criticism - but also an open mind, too, as well as regular updates on what I've been wrong about. Platformer is written for an audience that understands that inventing the future is complicated. Expertly curated links catch you up on what you missed during the workday, with the relevant data highlighted for you. Who's up, who's down, and what will it cost them? Amid a global reckoning over the impact of technology on society, Platformer helps you keep score.ġ00 percent signal. As a member, you’ll be able to meet like-minded people in text chat, discuss the news of the day, and listen in on live interviews with leading industry CEOs and newsmakers. Platformer is part of Sidechannel, a Discord server shared among some of the best independent journalists working today. On weekdays at 5PM PT, thousands of top tech executives, journalists, academics and civil society workers read my reporting on - and analysis of - the day's biggest events at the intersection of technology and democracy. You can email us at and first, here are some reasons to consider subscribing. We also invite you to read our ethics policy and the Platformer posting schedule. In addition to the below, Casey wrote a more extensive guide to what Platformer covers, how we do our work, and how he sees the world - you can find it here. Zoë wrote groundbreaking scoops about Away, Apple, Netflix, and Twitter for The Verge before joining in 2022. Casey spent 10 years covering Silicon Valley for The Verge, CNET, and the San Francisco Chronicle before founding Platformer. It’s written by Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer. New issues arrive at 5PM PT on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and on particularly newsy Wednesdays and Fridays. It's the best way to keep up on the events that mattered at Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Snap, and TikTok - with regular guest appearances from Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and the upstart platforms that are challenging them. Platformer is your daily guide to understanding social networks and their relationships with the world. “Casey Newton opinions hold sway among social media executives.” - New York Times “Widely read in Silicon Valley.” - NBC News

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