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Thank you for clicking on one of our ads. It feels weird to be posting ads, to be honest, but that’s the business of being…well, a business. My name is Myles McNutt, and I’m the Editor-in-Chief of this writer-owned, subscriber-supported newsletter of television criticism, and I placed that ad to help find people like myself and our contributors who want a space to talk about TV on a weekly basis. And if that’s already something you think you want to be a part of, now’s the best time to become a paid subscriber.
Want or need to know more? Let’s talk about what we’re building.
Why does Episodic Medium exist?
Now, you may have just come from a space where you regularly talk about the TV you watch, or maybe you came from a space that you wish allowed you to do so. For myself and many of our contributors, that space was The A.V. Club, where we wrote weekly reviews of shows like Breaking Bad and The Office at a time when logging on after you finished watching to read your favorite critics’ thoughts was a crucial part of the ritual. It was augmented by the conversations we’d have at the virtual watercooler of Twitter, livetweeting event television and tapping into the collective experience of broadcasting.
Those spaces have changed. Although thankfully under (great) new management since many of us resigned from writing for the site in 2022, The A.V. Club has been subject to the pressures of SEO and ad-based journalism, along with the increasing toxicity of comment sections that once felt vital to our experiences. And in its current form, Twitter is an increasingly useless space dominated by fake blue check marks, and the platforms that have emerged to try to replace it—Threads, BlueSky—lack the liveness that made TV conversation so excellent on those platforms.
While it started as a space for me to continue writing my own criticism, with the support of both our subscribers and the contributors who have joined me over the past two and a half years Episodic Medium has become an effort to create a sustainable future for the kind of writing and conversation about TV that has been so fundamental to our lives and careers. That sustainability comes from our paid subscribers, whose $5 a month supports the arrival of 5-7 reviews a week (depending on timing) into their inboxes (and accessible on our website and the Substack App).
What does Episodic Medium cover?
You can find a full list of our contributors and every show we’ve covered on our About Page, but here’s what we’re covering in the next few months.
Why do I have to pay money to access your reviews that used to be free?
I have always been conscious that we are asking users to pay for something that we used to get for free, but those subscriptions allow Episodic Medium to do important things like
- Paying writers a fair rare
- Avoiding ads and other instructions on the reading experience
- Flexibility from clickbait headlines and rushing to be “first” for SEO
Most important, though, they allow us to create a space online where everyone in the comments is paying to be there, elevating the discussion beyond what you’ll find elsewhere online given the current state of social media platforms. That discussions happens both on the reviews themselves and as part of the Substack Chat, where paid subscribers can start their own threads.
Why should I subscribe now?
Every September, we run a subscription drive with a 20% discount on our yearly subscription offer. This reduces the price to $40 a year for the first year, which means you’re paying less than $0.15 for each of the roughly 300 reviews you’ll have access to over the course of the next 12 months. It also gives us the financial stability necessary to add more coverage, bringing in more contributors, and supporting the administrative burdens of this largely one-person operation. If you’re not already convinced by the value of what you’ll receive in your inboxes for the money, your funds are also supporting the long-term sustainability of a writer-owned-and-operated publication.
What’s the final pitch?
It felt weird to ask for money when Episodic Medium was just me, but at this point your support for Episodic Medium is truly support for a community of people:
- The contributors who write for the site
- The existing subscribers who have found a place where they love to discuss TV
- The future subscribers who don’t know we’re here yet
If you’re one of those, thank you for considering the site, and I hope you’ll at least sign up for a free subscription and see if you’re compelled to join the discussion. If you already know this is the space for you, I understand $40 is still a high upfront cost, but even a $5 monthly subscription is a vote of confidence for what we’re doing and a chance to convince you to invest in the site’s future.
Parting words?
Thank you for clicking the link and at least considering Episodic Medium as a home for your relationship with television—I know there’s lot of people out there who don’t know about our newsletter but want to be a part of a community like this, and I hope this has reached someone who can help us build a sustainable future for that community moving forward.
Myles McNutt
Editor-in-Chief, Episodic Medium