My Beginnings in EMS, and My Writing Productivity Secret
The Secret to True’s Success
It’s not “because of” a grumpy unsubscribe, but despite it.
About
Ask Me Anything 007 …How I Find and Write Stories
No, episode 007 isn’t about spies onboard, but readers are quite involved in helping to find stories.
Tagline Inspiration
So Often My Taglines are simply what went through my head while reading a news story. Let me give you an example.
Easy as ABC?
A Good Sleep Saturday night, as we were headed to Bonaire for a two-day stay, was great since I do most of my writing and editing of the stories on Sunday; other parts of the newsletter are done Monday, such as the Honorary Unsubscribe, and I send the newsletter late in the day Mondays as soon as it’s done.
Freudian Typo
In a story this week, Jen, one of my editors, pointed out an interesting typo.
The Evolution of True’s Logo
This post was inspired by a question from Premium reader James in Toronto, who asked about the logo after he read an old post about how the This is True title came about:
Should I Keep Submitting Articles to TRUE?
Paul in Virginia “refound” This is True in 2021. He re-subscribed and sent a note, “I used to get ‘News of the Weird’ until Chuck Shepherd took ill. I ran into one of my old GOOHF cards and hoped that you were still publishing and am delighted to see that you are. Please stay healthy!”
The Plus Edition
Announcing a new edition of This is True: the Plus Edition, only available on Substack, a paid newsletter platform.
Why My New Podcast Host is So Cool
I’m Excited About My New Podcast Host. There’s no Uncommon Sense Podcast episode this week: I spent my podcast time last week moving everything to a new hosting site since I’ve been unhappy with the old one. The new host lets me do something special, especially for those of you who aren’t really techie: give you really easy access via your smartphone or tablet.
This is True’s Very Beginning
True recently hit its 25th anniversary. But can a weird news story that I posted at NASA before This is True was “invented” be traced? This weekend I decided to find out, since it’s a pretty “famous” story considering it never ran in the newsletter.
25 Years
Last week, This is True wrapped up its 25th year of weekly issues. What a great ride it’s been — it went by in a flash.
000: Podcast Relaunch Introduction
In This Episode: Uncommon Sense relaunches this week with a slight change of focus.
The Ongoing Struggle
After My Discussion Last Week that said True is suffering tough times due to a reduction in Premium subscribers since the election, and really needs about 1 percent of you to upgrade to just get up to the “minimum sustainable” target to make the publication fully viable, Joe in California wrote to say he didn’t … Continue Reading
True’s Focus
When readers unsubscribe from True they have the opportunity to send a comment. Many give the “reason” they’re unsubscribing, and some even apologize (not necessary — really!)
The two most-common reasons people give for unsubscribing is “I’ve upgraded to Premium” (woo hoo!) and “I’m just too busy to read it” (bummer! Life is too short not to have some fun!) This weekend, one woman put in a rather startling reason:
Why Publish Letters from “Idiots”?
Now and then there’s a story or item that brings a nearly violent response from a small subset of readers. Even though they are usually represent a very small minority of my readers, I’ll often publish such letters. Why?
What the HELL?!!?
The Briefest of Backgrounds
For those coming in from other links, This is True is a pioneer in online publishing. Since 1994, it has been the email leader of “weird news.” Subscribers get stories every week by email with true tales of human stupidity, all tagged with humorous, opinionated or ironic commentary by me, Randy Cassingham.
Niche Masters Who Can Kill You
My remarks to the second (and last) Online News Summit in 1998.