The Future of The Bulwark and You

Ride or Die with Will Saletan.

Last week Will Saletan came to work with us at The Bulwark. I’m crazy excited and want to tell you why.

I’ve been reading Will more or less since I came to Washington, so coming on 25 years. I was reading Slate from the day it started—I remember the story about Mike Kinsley showing up to his first day at the Microsoft mothership wearing a DoJ baseball cap. (This was back when MSOFT was getting hammered for anti-trust.)

I remember when Slate did “Slate Paper.” Which was this: They literally printed out the entire website once a week and sold them at Starbucks. I’m not kidding. This is a thing that happened.

And from the very beginning, Will was my favorite writer at Slate.

Because I’m not a very social guy, I don’t think I met him until maybe eight years ago. But when you read someone long enough, you develop a weird, asymmetrical sort of relationship: I felt like I’d known him forever, like we were old buddies. And IRL, Will was great. The kind of guy you instantly know would have been one of your best friends in high school.

Will is going to make The Bulwark better in all the ways that I want us to get better. If you’ve been reading Will over the years, then you know what an asset he’ll be. And if you’re not familiar with his stuff, then trust me. You’re going to love him.

Most important: Thank you. Because you helped make this happen.

If you’re reading this then you’re on the list of people who’ve signed up to get the free stuff The Bulwark sends out, but you haven’t yet joined Bulwark+.

And that’s great. $100 is a lot of money. Not everyone can swing that and you support us just by reading and sharing and engaging with our work.

I’m grateful for you because you helped make it possible for us to bring Will Saletan to The Bulwark.

But I also want to use this as a pitch to invite you further in.

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I don’t view Bulwark readers as customers, but as partners. We’re a mission-oriented operation, which is why we make most of what we do public. You get to read most of what we write for free because we can’t save democracy from behind a paywall.

The people who join Bulwark+ do it because they want to be part of the mission. And because of them we could afford to bring Will Saletan on with us. And as a tease: I’ll have another addition to The Bulwark bullpen to announce in a few days.

The Bulwark is incredibly lean. We don’t spend a dime on advertising or Facebook subscription acquisition because we want every dollar to go to the actual product—the stuff you read and listen to.

Which means that every single member of Bulwark+ came to us organically: Because they were reading a newsletter, or a piece on the website, or listening to one of our podcasts. People join Bulwark+ because they see what we were doing and want to be part of it.

So here’s my ask: If you join Bulwark+ you get a bunch of extras. There is The Secret Podcast—newly expanded to twice weekly, the Thursday night livestream, every issue of my Triad newsletter, and the ability to engage in our comments community.

But the extras aren’t why most people join Bulwark+. They do it because they support the mission. Because they care about democracy. Because they want to be part of building a better, healthier politics.

I hope you’ll consider joining Bulwark+ today. It’s a lot of money. I get that. But what you’re spending it on isn’t back-of-the-house bloat or clickbait BS. You’re supporting writers like Will Saletan.

If you can’t swing the cost, I get it. But if you can, I’d love to have you ride with us.

Best,
JVL

P.S.: If you have a special hardship that makes joining Bulwark+ impossible, you should email me. Just hit reply to this email. I try to never leave out someone who wants to ride with us, but is in a hard spot.

We’re doing this to save the world, not get rich. And I trust you guys to be straight with me.