September Subscriber Drive Update: We're Nearly There!

Good morning, Friday morning. I hope everyone is well given the week that we've had. As I mentioned in my email last week, I'm in the midst of a subscriber drive this month and wanted to give everyone an update on the progress so far.

Since my last email, we've added 17 new paid subscribers to the roster, which is...absolutely freaking fantastic. You have no idea what it means to me to see folks who dig my work enough to pay for it. These extra resources are a boon at a time when independent journalism is already tough to do. If things stay at this clip, I'll reach my 50 paid subscriber goal in no time. Should that happen before the end of September, I'd like to  introduce a bit of a stretch goal to the mix, and see if we can't get to 75, or even 100 paid subscribers before October's spooky season is upon us.

I'd like to quote my last email to give you a sense of what your paid subscription is helping me accomplish:

In just in the last few months, I’ve helped break news on social media about the Feds storming MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, documented continuous police brutality outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, and helped elevate important community gatherings that strengthen the social safety net in Los Angeles and beyond.

Here at Words About Work, I’ve continued that work: Every week, I send you digests of important headlines from the world of labor that help folks remember that the work is still continuing. I’m branching out into more original reporting, including a series about what it means to struggle for stable work in the wake of a layoff, and covering the labor movement in Southern California and across the country. None of these things would be possible without the support of you–my readers. Seriously.

If you’re a free subscriber and you’ve been with me for awhile, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. I’ve got a number of tiered options for folks that I hope can fit your individual budget. The annual subscriptions are heavily discounted as well, so if that floats your fancy and it’s in your budget, please sign up here or in the box below.

To reiterate from last week, I have a number of goals (and fanciful stretch goals) that I'm hoping to accomplish from now until the end of 2026.

With…

• 100 paid subscribers, I could begin to think less about finding part-time bartending shifts to pay the bills, and more about the newsletter
• 250 paid subscribers, I could cover the bulk of my bills and do this newsletter full-time
• 500 paid subscribers, I could travel more extensively for my reporting, outside Southern California and into the wider US to chase labor stories that matter (and afford the annual subscription fees required in order to migrate everything over to Ghost)
• 750 paid subscribers, I could bring on an editor to help with original reporting and producer for a new podcast idea I’ve been kicking around (the dream!)
• 1000 paid subscribers, I will fly anywhere in the U.S. to personally fight your boss
• 5000 paid subscribers, I will fly anywhere in the U.S. to personally fight your boss…in a steel cage match

Once again, for legal purposes, those last two are jokes, lmao--BUT. Having anything close to 1k or 5k paid subscribers would be...the dream. It would allow me to work full-time at this newsletter, hire on some smart cookies to help me turn it into something truly astounding, and give me the ability to travel all over the US reporting on the important stories that you care about.

Getting even just a glimpse at the sheer breadth and scope of the organizing that happens in this country every day would knock your socks off. Gimme the chance to shed some light on the beautiful shit that's happening in this country, despite this regime's best efforts to shut it down.

So, if you're still thinking about subscribing to the newsletter, and needed a sign to do it, maybe this one's it. I have a number of tiered options that make it imminently affordable--for as little as 5 bucks a month you can support my little corner of the journalism world.

With all that said, I want to end this email with a hearty thank you to everyone who has dropped their email into the box, or shared my work on social media and through email. Free or paid, doesn't matter--what is wild to me is that folks continue to send me words of encouragement and find my work useful, informative, or even inspiring. I love what I do--listening to the stories of people who are far cooler than I could ever hope to be and sharing those stories with my readership. Thank you. It's rad, you're rad, I can feel the solidarity from all the way over here.

Alright, that's me off my little soapbox, thanks for reading.

-Mel

Please note: For the duration of this month, you’re gonna see a few more posts of this nature than you normally would. I will do my best not to flood your inbox with fundraising emails, but I also want to make the most of this subscriber drive and provide regular updates on my progress as we move through September. It’ll be back to your regularly scheduled programming as we head into October. Much love and thanks–