True Business – Page 2 of 6

The Ongoing Struggle

Posted November 19, 2018August 18, 2017 in About, True Business5 Comments

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

The Return of Randy’s Random

Posted January 6, 2022January 23, 2017 in Other Projects, True Business4 Comments

Long-time readers may remember that years ago, I had a separate mailing list called “Randy’s Random” — mostly jokes and funny stories. But how to deal with graphics? I didn’t want to email graphics, so Randy’s Random then morphed into Jumbo Joke, which (as you probably know) ran for years. I sold it in 2016, but the buyer didn’t put it back online.

Alternative to Patreon, Please?

Posted November 10, 2018October 23, 2016 in Reader Feedback, True Business1 Comment

Premium Subscriber Erik in Nevada wanted to really help True, but he didn’t want to do it via the new effort on Patreon, the “crowd-funding” platform for creative endeavors.

This is True on Patreon

Posted January 6, 2022September 19, 2016 in True Business13 Comments

(Also see Update below.)

Last Week, I Noted I Had a High-Risk (but “audacious”) goal for True — and came up with a way to take most of the risk away.

Why I’ve Removed Google’s Ads

Posted November 30, 2021April 8, 2016 in Editorial, Online Life, Rant, True Business37 Comments

It’s a Matter of Control.

As of today, I’ve turned off Google’s “Adsense” service on this site.

This is True went online in the first half of 1994, so True has been in business longer than many big names in the Internet biz, including Google (1998). As a classic feature column, I received (and turned down) syndication offers from two different newspaper syndicates, including one of the biggest in the business, because I wanted full control of True’s publication rights — including its online presence. I’m not about to let Google control what I write about in this context!

Forging My Own Path

Posted May 8, 2022July 6, 2015 in Media Notice, Online Life, Rant, True Business10 Comments

What Would You Include as significant milestones in the “history” of weird news?

Cut Out the Middleman

Posted November 30, 2021June 5, 2015 in Online Life, True Business27 Comments

While Looking for Something Else, I came across this letter from a reader dated May 30 …2005:

“Only in Premium”

Posted January 28, 2021May 8, 2015 in Reader Feedback, True Business31 Comments

The Minor Format Change introduced last week brought a lot of positive comments. Just one example: “Love, love, love the new way you tease the ‘missing’ Premium stories.” —Mark in New Jersey. That’s awfully nice. But, of course, there were protest unsubscribes last week because I stopped gathering all the “stories you missed” summaries into a large paragraph, and instead left their story slugs up among the full stories, and included a brief summary of the story there. A few examples:

Webby Come Lately

Posted November 30, 2021April 13, 2015 in Online Life, True Business6 Comments

In June, This is True celebrates 21 years online — a pioneer in online publishing that predates Facebook, Google, Amazon, and the vast majority of other web sites you can find online today.

Know Thy Enemy

Posted November 30, 2021February 9, 2015 in Editorial, Military, Reader Feedback, True Business10 Comments

A Letter from Roland in Kent, England (where my family name comes from), really got spinning through my mind, because it really helps to put everything in perspective. Let me explain — starting with Roland’s letter (the italics are from the original):

Writers Write

Posted November 30, 2021January 12, 2015 in Editorial, True Business, Work9 Comments

In a discussion group I frequent, one of the members posed a link, and wondered:

“Not sure if the writers here see the need for this….”

The Pomplamoose Problem

Posted February 11, 2021December 8, 2014 in Editorial, Marketing, Online Life, True Business5 Comments

An Interesting Article on the site Artist Empathy (yeah, I hadn’t heard of it before either) discusses “The Pomplamoose Problem”…

Ask Me Anything

Posted January 6, 2022September 6, 2014 in Trivia, True Business24 Comments

A reader thought I should go on Reddit and do an AMA, or “Ask Me Anything” event. I do have a Reddit account, but I’ve been far from active there, and I’m a bit dubious that I’m known there. It’d be pretty icky to do an AMA and not have anyone show up. But after pondering it for several months, I thought I’d do an AMA outside of Reddit, and invite the Premium subscribers to ask the questions.

20 Years …and Counting

Posted January 28, 2021June 30, 2014 in Online Life, True Business19 Comments

This Week Marks a Huge Milestone for This is True: the end of its 20th year. It started as a bulletin board item outside my office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The first one, dated 26 June 1994, was written to go into my business plan — I hadn’t actually gotten distribution set up. As I was working on the tech, I kept writing a new column each week and, when it went online in July 1994, it was an instant hit, quickly ramping up in circulation.

Facebook: Starting to Circle the Drain?

Posted October 2, 2018March 31, 2014 in Online Life, True Business41 Comments

Facebook is about to get worse — a lot worse — and I think my days there are numbered. I can’t be the only publisher getting ready to give up.

End of One Era, Start of Another

Posted November 30, 2021January 20, 2014 in Other Projects, True Business9 Comments

While doing my research this week, I stumbled across an interesting tidbit: Paramount Pictures has become the first major film studio to announce that it will no longer be distributing movies on film, and is going exclusively to digital distribution.

Ground Control to Major Tom

Posted November 30, 2021December 30, 2013 in Away From Work, Books, Explainer, Space, True Business7 Comments

It’s been forever since I’ve written a “What I’ve been reading lately” blurb. You’ll like what has been on my tablet lately. (It’s amusing that while putting this in my blog software and having to choose categories, both “Away From Work” and “True Business” seem appropriate. Read on, and you’ll understand!)

A True Milestone: 1000 Weekly Issues

Posted January 28, 2021August 12, 2013 in Firsts, True Business130 Comments

The 11 August 2013 issue — Issue 1000 — brought a new look to This is True: as promised nearly two years ago, plain text is out, and “simple HTML” is in. I introduced it to the Premium subscribers this way:

Premium Subscribers Demand:
Raise the Price!

Posted September 28, 2018July 26, 2013 in Reader Feedback, True Business21 Comments

It has nearly been a decade since the price for a Premium upgrade changed — it went to $24. Premium subscribers themselves have said it’s too cheap. I wanted some detail, and was boggled by what they told me.

The Return of Paul Myers

Posted May 30, 2022May 27, 2013 in Guest Post, Plugs, True Business4 Comments

OK, my old buddy Paul hasn’t gone anywhere, but I’ve talked about him before on this blog, and it’s time I talked about him again. He’s the type of friend that if I make a quick phone call to him (as I did today, to catch up), we end up gabbing for over an hour. Sometimes three.