Why subscribe to The Fortnightly?
In 2016 I started The Fortnightly, a compendium of interesting things I have noticed recently that might be of interest to readers, teachers, thinkers, English-y sorts. There were about 40 people on the first subscribers’ list, mostly friends and colleagues.
Five years later the readership has grown massively, and there are subscribers all over the world.
A few notes:
It goes out on a Saturday morning. I think of it as a kind of weekend magazine: the ideal reader sits with a cup of coffee and scrolls through it in a leisurely manner.
I subscribe to several newsletters, and like everyone tend to skim through them until my eye is caught by something. I wouldn’t expect anyone to read a Fortnightly thoroughly. More likely, the thing has done a good job if you’ve picked up one idea, or been intrigued by one book recommendation, or read an interesting article which hadn’t come to your attention previously.
Its tone is mainly enthusiastic. I like celebrating books, interesting articles, absorbing podcasts, good ideas about teaching. We all know how much online is unpleasant, or even toxic: it’s invigorating to be positive.
The best thing is when a reader replies: I’ve had amazing conversations with fascinating people in many countries. Lots of connections made.
There are some very kind supporters who regularly spread the word, and encourage their networks to sign up. Thank you.
It’s free. That’s important. It’s a gift. If you’re happy to subscribe financially, thank you (that will defray website etc costs), but everyone who subscribes gets every issue. Anyone who does pay will get some occasional extra things.
It feels good to send this thing into the ether once every two weeks, even if there’s no response (though sometimes, months later, a subscriber writes back letting me know something had an impact: in that sense, it’s not unlike teaching). I recommend Robert Macfarlane’s essay The Gifts of Reading, and his comments on how gifts are not commodities. So I’ll end by quoting him:
The outcome of a gift is uncertain at the time of giving, but the fact that it has been given charges it with great potential to act upon the recipient for the good. Because of the gratitude we feel, and because the gift is by definition given freely, without obligation, we are encouraged to meet it with openness and with excitement.
