I’m Isaac Saul, and this is Tangle: an independent, nonpartisan, subscriber-supported politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from across the political spectrum on the news of the day — then “my take.”

Dear reader,

You might not know this, but 90% of Tangle’s operations are supported by just 45,000 people. How? They opt for a paid membership at $59/year, or less than $5/month.

So I’ll get straight to the point: We’re running a Black Friday deal all week to get 25% off the first year of a Tangle membership.

If you have been reading for a little while and that’s enough for you to support our work, then you can stop reading and go ahead and become a member.

(Some subscribers who want to throw extra support behind our work sign up for our "Thank you" tier, which is $199/year. You can do that here.)

But if you’re still on the fence, here’s some more information on what you get when you subscribe:

  • You unlock our members-only Friday editions, plus close to 2,000 posts in our archive.
  • You get original transcribed interviews, deep dives, reader-requested content, and personal essays.
  • You’ll receive our premium Sunday editions that include shortened summaries of all our newsletters from the week (a great time saver!), fun comics, captivating reader essays, and more.
  • You get a cleaner user experience with no advertisements in our Monday through Thursday editions.
  • You get access to the comments section on every edition.
  • You get baked into any additional offerings in the future including first updates on what’s happening in Tangle (and there’s a lot).
  • You get the satisfaction that you’re supporting a truly independent and nonpartisan publication and a very small team.

How do you know it's worth it?

We have over 45,000 paying subscribers. Every month, less than 1% of them cancel. That's how much they like it. Put differently: 99% of all subscribers stay subscribers every month. 

On a personal note, I think it’s worth it because:

1) Trust in the media is at an all-time low, and we are actually bringing conservatives, liberals and independents under one roof.

2) We’re doing something genuinely unique, and you’re on the ground floor helping us build it.

3) This is the biggest discount we’ve ever offered on a year of a Tangle membership. 

Why do we need it?

Most news outlets will give you some high-minded stuff about how they are changing the world, holding the powerful to account, or remaking media. But the truth is we are still small fish in a big sea. For context: Close to three million people watch Fox News every night. The New York Times has 11 million paying subscribers, about 244 times as many as us.

When people subscribe, we put the money toward:

  • Our small team of full-time writers, editors, producers.
  • Our larger team of part-time copy editors, podcast editors, and interns.
  • New hires that can help improve your experience, like our recently hired customer service lead.
  • Our various social platforms including our YouTube, Instagram, X feeds that are not monetized (but we still create content for).
  • Our marketing budget so we can grow our audience, expand our coverage, hire on new personnel and improve Tangle organizationally.

Think about it this way: About 250,000 people are receiving this email. If 2,500 of them (just 1 in 100!) jumped to a paying subscription, we could hire two new full-time team members.

We're trying to change the news, but it's an uphill battle. Every subscriber counts.

Anything else?

Yeah, thank you! Even if you aren't ready to become a member, you can keep reading most of our content for free and you can help us simply by spreading the word. If you're reading this, you are supporting an independent news organization trying to remake the media landscape. I know these emails can be annoying, but I hope you understand why we are asking.

Remember: If you can't afford a subscription, just write in to staff@readtangle.com and let us know — we’ll gift you one on the house. And if you want to be generous and help fund those gift subscriptions, please consider our "thank you" tier.

Thank you!

Best,

Isaac, Magdalena, Ari, Jon, Will, and the Tangle team