What has your support produced this year?
Here is a statistical breakdown of the work I did this year across every media. Your $5 went incredibly far.
This is the end of year 1 of this journey that Gabrielle and I started. Since the beginning of this year, Gab got a real job, but this little project has exploded. 4200 people are subscribed to this newsletter, and we have done some unbelievable work. I would dare say that some of the work that I’ve published on the Rover and Pivot, as well as this tiny little substack have had national effect. That’s absurd. I broke down the work I did this year so you can feel good about your monthly donation.
I went through my own publications this year. I have published 170 things in the past year, not including social media posts, and four pieces I finalized were not published.
Of those published, 64 pieces were published in media companies, and 106 on Substack.
Where specifically? When combining podcasts, videos and articles, it was 25 in the Rover, 29 in Pivot, 4 in Présence, 3 in the Independent, 2 in J Source, and 1 in Canadian Dimension, with 106 in On the Trail (many of which were podcasts and videos!)
Okay, but now lets factor in social media. Suddenly 170 publications increases up to 494 publications this year.
And finally, what are my stats on socials (according to these companies.)
I’m way more popular on Instagram, although there was a period in the middle of the year (April-October) where Tik Tok wouldn’t show my videos to people. Only around 500-800 people would see each video. Now, around 5-10 thousand see every video. I went from considering Tik Tok a dead platform, to thinking once again that it could be viable.
I suspect it had something to do with the Canadian government shutting down their Canadian headquarters, but I don’t know. Other friends of mine in Canada had the same problem.
Just to brag a little, I also did all of this while maintaining a 3.9 GPA in full time university (an A average.) I don’t brag too much, but that’s pretty dope y’all
I will be taking a few weeks off now! I’m exhausted between school and work, and haven’t taken a real vacation since 2022. I have scheduled a couple little fun pieces while I’m off, stuff that isn’t necessarily political, but things that should hopefully make you smile over the holidays. It’s my newsletter, so why wouldn’t I talk about things I love? So, while I’m on break, expect to receive a letter about my favourite books and music of 2025! I’m not a cinephile, so there won’t be anything about books! Sorry folks. I also play video games, but not as much as I read or listen to music. Maybe I’ll do something cute on video games.
Here’s some end of year thoughts.
People like it when I throw huge big numerical pieces at them. When I talk about topics that are on everyone’s minds, but aren’t covered. My biggest pieces this year (on the substack) are easily the Media ownership and the Spotify articles. After that, it’s the Gaza Genocide UN report summarized. What this indicates to me is that y’all want more of that, so I’m going to give you more of that. Why talk about news when I can make algorithmic models of proportional representation? That’s the stuff that interests me anyways. Nonetheless, I’m someone who loves doing a wide variety of stuff, or I’ll get bored. Actually, I wrote a 15 page research paper on Postmedia and the National Post, but I wound up selling the piece to J-Source, thus postponing it into the new year... So expect to see that in January. Otherwise, it would have come out this year.
I don’t know who supports me in this substack for my socials or for my writing. I wish I knew. Regardless, I will continue spattering a bit of both. I have decidedly done a mix of text and video, and lately the text has been doing serious numbers where the videos have been doing okay and I’m not sure why. Still, I’ll do both in the new year.
I have new databases that I’ll be ready to release in the beginning of the new year. I love databases. I want to do more. Math tells better stories than I do anyways.
I have videos I want to release. I keep knowing where I want to go with my video and substack content, but it will take more work than what I do right now, and means I’ll release less frequently. I keep saying to *redacted* (my partner) that it’s what I want to do, but I keep chickening out because I get worried everyone will unsubscribe if I make less content. I need to bite the bullet and make the things that I want to, which will be higher quality although less frequent. I feel like I probably have your support, but I’m feeling insecure about it, so I’d love to hear your feedback about it.
The same problem and principle applies to substack posts. I’d rather spend tons of time on databases and algorithms, modelling and graphs, but I get worried that people will feel they aren’t getting their five dollars worth. If I commit to doing that in the new year, will it be a positive thing, or a negative thing? I would love some feedback. Every time I release those pieces, they’re exceptionally well received, which makes me think that this should be the direction I go in. I hope I won’t lose subscribers, but I earnestly would like to hear feedback from you all. I think what I’m best at as a journalist is communicating big, complex data based projects in a fun way, but what do you think? Let me know, because your feedback is invaluable!
The podcasts are doing well. I’m pretty impressed with it. Substack says there’s an average of ~980 downloads per episode after 30 days. Love that. That’s a decent following. Nonetheless, I think we can do better with our format, so in the New Year I plan to retool it a bit to be more focused, and segmented (trust me it’ll be similar but a teeny bit better!) Gab and I love making it. It’s also partly just our excuse to spend Sunday evening hanging out.
I’m not too far from my goal of hitting $50,000 a year, but I haven’t gotten there yet! One day we might. If I was smarter, and I charged $10 a month we would easily be at $60,000 a year, but I don’t really want to raise prices. Inflation is killing us all. I like the ease of entry of $5 a month. It’s cheap, and since everything is free, It’s opt in. All I need to do is gain a thousand more subscribers, and I can start paying Christopher Curtis to freelance for me instead of the other way around.
That’s it. Those are my thoughts. I will keep thinking and reflecting how to better serve the people online, my followers, my friends, the community, journalism, etc. I love doing this. I hope to do it for a long time coming. Love you all, so Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
I will be with my family, who are here from France, and enjoying wine, cheese, and conversation over a good game of Catan. I know that not everyone has this type of opportunity in their life, so I am lucky to have family and friends whom I love, and to finally take a bit of time off.
God bless, see you soon!
Thanks for all your hard work this year Isaac! I’m definitely better informed for having read and listened to your material. I like to think my hard work of liking and commenting on your posts has perhaps had a ~national~ effect as well. Enjoy the holidays!