Should I move Unreported Truths from Substack to Locals/Rumble?

Locals - a subscription service that is part of a content and hosting company called Rumble - has asked me to jump ship. Unreported Truths exists because of and for you, so I want your opinion.

Amazing but true, this Substack didn’t even exist two years ago.

I created Unreported Truths on Substack in May 2021 as a way to publish longer-form articles about Covid and the mRNA jabs than Twitter allowed. But as the shots failed and Twitter censored me in the summer of 2021, the Unreported Truths audience exploded.

Today more than 250,000 of you subscribe. Most of you don’t pay, but enough do to enable me to do quite well.

I’d like to think I work hard for the money, though. I write a lot, and I take my promise to provide you with accurate news and analysis - about the mRNAs and anything else - seriously. I am not always perfect, but when I make mistakes I try to correct them quickly and transparently.

I am proud of the community we’ve built.

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(SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? EITHER WAY, JOIN THE PARTY)

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I mention all of this because Locals - the subscription arm of the publicly traded content company Rumble - is recruiting me to bring Unreported Truths to its site/app. Rumble is mostly an ad-supported video platform, but it wants to make subscriptions and written content a bigger part of what it does.

It brought Glenn Greenwald over from Substack a few months ago. He has basically switched from writing to producing a nightly video podcast. I don’t plan to do that, and Locals is not asking me to do so, though I might make a couple of short videos a month as a bonus for paid subscribers.

Locals has made me an attractive offer to switch. Financially, moving is the right decision. Locals promises that paid subscribers will be able to switch to my Locals community with a single click, and free subscribers will continue to receive emails just as they do now.

And Locals is just as committed to free speech as Substack.

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Why haven’t I already said yes, then?

I have two big concerns about moving.

First, I worry that some of you will not want to sign up for a new service, even if doing so requires only a single click. If even a third of you fail to make the move, I will lose 80,000 readers in one swoop. (Audience) size matters, especially since Twitter is now sputtering and seemingly unable to drive subscriptions. I feel like Glenn Greenwald has not had the same reach since his switch.

Second, Substack has now built a strong community of writers - from Matt Taibbi to Eugyppius. I am able to point you easily to articles and writers inside Substack I like, and vice-versa. In late 2021 and early 2022, the left tried to tar Substack as filled with right-wing crazies, but it failed. Plenty of centrist and left-wing writers now use Substack and have large audiences.

(Guess again:)

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But Rumble and Locals really are the hard right.

Aside from Glenn, the biggest draws are folks like Scott Adams and Steven Crowder. The left has spent three years trying to marginalize me and smear me as someone whose journalism is not to be trusted.

I worry that moving to Rumble will simply give them more ammunition. Instead of sharing a platform with serious journalists, I’ll be on one that’s mostly occupied by conservative provocateurs. At least for now. Maybe over time the mix of content creators on Rumble and Locals will broaden - and the companies want it to broaden, that’s why they’re recruiting me - but there’s no guarantee.

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One final point: what about loyalty to Substack?

Yes, Substack did stand by its free-speech principles during those ugly days in 2021 and 2022, when it faced pressure to ban me. And I’ve met Chris Best, Substack’s chief executive. He’s a good guy, and I think he is serious about building a subscription-based community that encourages smart writing and reader engagement.

At the same time, Substack has always treated me and the success of Unreported Truths grudgingly. Even last month, it found no place for me in a long list of its top writers. You reap what you sow.

So this choice is about what’s right for Unreported Truths, not Substack. The decision is not an easy one, and your voice matters. I don’t promise I’ll abide by the results of this poll, but I will consider it strongly.

Speak now, or forever hold your peace: