We’ve reached a milestone that I want to share with you.
Hey friends,
Earlier this month we crossed 100,000 paid members to Bulwark+. I want to talk about this, which is a little self-indulgent, I know—but I hope you’ll hear me out.
When we started Bulwark+ in 2021, I set our target at 10,000 members. Our stretch goal was 12,000. I remember a meeting with Sarah Longwell where she said she wanted us to get to 25,000. I laughed because I knew the subscription economics for a political magazine are hard.
Later, when we were around 36,000 members, my colleague Adam Keiper mentioned reaching 50,000 members. I told him—I believe these were my exact words—“Get that number out of your head because it’s not going to happen. It can’t happen. There is a limit to the audience for a publication like ours.”
My mistake was that I fundamentally misunderstood what The Bulwark was. This is not a magazine. It’s a community.
Magazines don’t have communities. They have readers. A magazine comes out once a week, or month, or quarter. A reader picks it up. Maybe, every once in a while, the reader sends a note to the author of one of the articles. And that’s that.
With The Bulwark, you get our newsletters in your email every single day. Then Bulwark+ members carry on the conversations we start and talk to each other in the comments. They provide some extra context, point out alternative scenarios, link to related content and correct our mistakes. Many now know each other’s stories, or look out for specific people in the comments, because they want to hear from each other. Learning from one another makes this whole enterprise a richer experience for our members and for us writers too.
If you hit reply to my Triad newsletter, it comes to me. I try my best to answer as many emails as I can whether they are from members or not. In this way I have become friends—actual, real-world friends—with a great many of you.
And for many of you, we’ve become part of your lives in another way: You listen to Bulwark podcasts when you’re driving, or running, or in the shower, or doing laundry. When you watch videos of us, you see we’re not wearing TV makeup. We’re not polished. You don’t get an idealized version of us. You see us as we really are. I put a kid to bed, then I walk downstairs, pull on my Phillies hat, and talk to you. You get the same JVL that my friends and family get.
And that’s the fundamental difference between The Bulwark and every other media entity I’ve been a part of. There’s no artifice, no veneer, no conventions.
It’s the real real.
We don’t do kabuki theater. We don’t play angles. We don’t publish bullshit source-development pieces. We don’t retreat to calling balls and strikes, as if we’re disinterested umpires in a game between two equal sides.
We are open. This is a unique moment in American history. It’s dangerous. There is an ongoing authoritarian attempt. We are on the side of democracy.
Period. The end.
It turns out that just by being open in this way, we sent up a flare to others like us. People who don’t pretend to have all the answers but who know that the moment requires something new.
People who know that it would take a lot of us, banding together.
If you’ve ever wanted to be part of this thing of ours, I hope you’ll do it.1 Like right now. We’re running a 30-day free trial for those wishing to go deeper with Bulwark+—this includes unfettered access to all our content, ad-free and member-only shows like The Secret Podcast, and community features like commenting and live chats.
I am not, by nature, a joiner. And yet this has been the most satisfying experience of my career. I think you’ll find it valuable, too. On a very deep level.
Like I said: Bulwark+ is not a magazine subscription. It’s something much bigger.
Lastly, I want to reiterate some promises:
We will not always be right. But when we’re wrong, we’ll be honestly wrong.
We are always transparent. We tell you what we think. No pretenses; no masks; no role-playing.
In everything we do, we ask, “Does this serve our community?”
Serving does not mean flattering you or confirming your priors.
Neither does it mean being reflexively contrarian.
We serve you by being honest and working in good faith. By correcting errors and trying to be our best selves—then getting after it again when we fall short.
And by calling you to be your best selves, too.
Come ride with us.
Best,
JVL
If you haven’t joined because of money stuff, that’s okay. Just hit reply to this email and we’ll work something out. Everyone who wants to be part of The Bulwark gets to join. One of the reason members pay is so that they can cover costs for those who, for whatever reason, can’t swing it.