Some personal news
I got a job. That complicates things.
Let’s get this out of the way: The DV Digest is ending.
Don’t worry, you can still get emails from me if you subscribe to Leg Day, my newsletter about pursuing joy as a city cyclist.
Sunsetting the DV Digest will allow me more time to work on that and…
My new job! At the end of last month, I became the managing editor of Field Mag. It’s an outdoors publication with an eye for good design, just as likely to cover GORP-y sneaker collaborations as hut-to-hut trail hiking in the Japanese Alps. I’m working with the FM founder to edit, assign, and publish as much as we possibly can over the next few months. Want to review a product, highlight an under-the-radar travel destination, or introduce our readers to someone doing something next level? Email me! I’m daniel@fieldmag.com.
I know. Sick email address, right?
It couldn’t come at a better time. I was fairly optimistic about potential freelance income last September, when I still had some severance left and the unemployment checks were flowing. But as I started to have to rely on the money I was making for freelancing, I realized the amount of effort ahead of me to make freelance writing a sustainable option. I had a lot of tools first-time freelancers don’t (industry contacts, negotiation skills) and was able to get a bunch of assignments relatively quickly. But I struggled to keep up. I often found myself filing sloppier than I’m comfortable with copy later than promised.
Sure, this is a problem that could have been solved with better organization. But I don’t know that the juice is worth the squeeze. I made more money during two months of a part-time summer internship at an interfaith research non-profit than I did in four months of freelancing. If I continued to earn at the same rate this year as I did between September and December of last year, I’d scrape just above the poverty line for a family of two.
And honestly, I wasn’t enjoying most of the work. I’m a very slow writer, even when I’m working on something I’m really excited about. The most reliable work I could regularly find freelancing was commerce content for outlets that don’t really test anything, instead having their writers and editors rely on brand knowledge (or imagined reputation) and past experience to make their recommendations. On many occasions, products I wanted to include in stories had to be cut because they weren’t available on any affiliate networks.
I don’t begrudge them for doing this. Media is an insanely tough business and commerce is often representative for a much larger part of a company’s income than a lot of readers probably realize. In a world where estimates indicate only 17% of people pay for ANY online news, commerce content is one of the few remaining reliable ways for outlets to raise money1. That could certainly change, but most editors have no actual ability to influence the long- or medium-term strategy where they work. And given how bad of a year this has been for media layoffs, who can afford to be a squeaky wheel?
Deepening my reliance on this system, without any of the protections that come from having full-time work, seems foolhardy to me. Especially once I met Graham at Field Mag and started editing again. I had missed working with other writers on their work so much!
My hope is that shifting my focus away from seeking and completing ad hoc freelance assignments for a bunch of publications to being a great managing editor for Field Mag will serve as a helpful reset in the coming year. I still have some outstanding assignments, but I’m going to be extremely careful not to agree to any further. The relief I feel in my body each time I cross one off my list is enough evidence I am making the right call.
I’ve gone back and forth about where that leaves me with this newsletter, which has been, at best, intermittent since I lost my job at WSJ last spring. Theoretically, a weekly list of links isn’t a tall order. And when I was doing it as a fun side project for my job, it didn’t feel like one. But now that my life has become managing part-time side projects, it isn’t feeling fun anymore. And given the limited potential audience for ANOTHER link roundup, anytime I put into this newsletter feels like a waste.
And anyway, Leg Day exists! I have a newsletter project that is allowing me to deepen my relationship to my main hobby, reaching a larger audience each day, and has still never felt like a chore. When I think about what I want my life in media to look like, Leg Day is at the center of my ambitions. I want to write as many stories like the examination of the “Lycra Bro” as I possibly can.
In order to more fully do that, I have to let go of the idea that The DV Digest will be anything more than a space for me to share occasional updates about my professional life to an audience of people who kinda sorta know who I am. If you are one of the few people who have paid for a subscription, you will be receiving an email in the coming days that I have paused paused subscription billing here. If you still feel like throwing me some ducats, you’ll get more bang for your buck at Leg Day.
I am coming to terms with this decision not as a failure, but as evidence of growth. Even if it makes wearing the hats I made with “The DV Digest” on the back a bit awkward. Or wait, does the fact we’ll never make more turn the three remaining “STET” hats I have in the shoebox next to my desk covetable merch?
Time will tell. See you then!
This stat comes from the 2024 Reuters Digital News Report. Notably, it found “a large proportion of digital subscriptions go to just a few upmarket national brands – reinforcing the winner-takes-most dynamics that are often linked with digital media.” Wonder whether/if the growth of Substack will factor in the 2025 report.
Congrats! Field Mag seems super cool. I went from learning about it to subscribing in less than a minute.
Congratulations!!