Media consumption diet--surfing the Substack wave

A few years ago, I got really mad at the New York Times. I do subscribe, more or less happily. There's not really any daily word-based journalism to equal it, though there are other worthy outlets, especially the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.  But suddenly, in what felt like a fit of algorithmically-endorsed design "improvement," the NYT's online landing page stopped showing the bylines of its writers. You had to click on any given story to find out who wrote it. (You still have to click; the design flaw persists.)

This was in complete contradiction to how I decide where to dip into the onrushing flood of daily journalism. I have long preferred to read by author. I know whose journalism has enhanced my understanding of matters I'm interested in. I choose to put my limited attention on their pieces. And also to avoid authors who have lost my trust -- on the NYT, looking at you Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker ...

So when Substack came along, I'd found a medium that nearly perfectly matched how I want to consume information and other content. Here were individual authors writing relatively long form who I had already identified and chosen to trust. And I admit, I've turned into a Substack glutton. I follow some 30 writers -- some paid, though many only for their loss-leader free content. The medium accords with how I want to float through information world.

Here are a few I recommend -- including some less frequented ones:

Jessica Valenti, Abortion Every Day

Peter Beinart on Israel/Palestine

Don Moynihan, student of public policy, asks Can We Still Govern?

Diana Butler Bass on faith, spirituality, and history at The Cottage

John Ganz at Unpopular Front on history for our times

Claudia Sahm, a high-end economist for the people, at Stay-At-Home Macro (SAHM)

Robert Wright at Nonzero Newsletter on averting (many) apocalypses

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on what's on the great man's mind

... and so many more.

In the last few days, Substack has added Notes which seems a lot like Twitter without the bots and Elon Musk. For the moment it appears mostly to be a home for the same writers I encounter via Substack  -- but can it stay congenial? It's hard to imagine a mass of people attracted to Substack can achieve internet-level scale.

Mike Masnick at The Verge interviewed Substack's CEO Chris Best about his platform -- but in particular how the company planned to deal with various kinds of bad actors who will likely find their way to Notes. Best did not convince me or the interviewer that Substack has a clue about solving social media's downsides ... unhappily.

For the moment, Substack has reminded me that the World Wide Web was once a magical arena where I could search out everything I was ever curious about -- before Facebook and Google and so on polluted it. Let's hope Substack endures as a useful platform for awhile.