A few thoughts about today’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The video coming out of there is horrific. There will surely be many thousands of casualties.
True Business
Meet Mike Straw
As I noted in early October, I came up with a plan to keep True going even though I’m trying to slow down a bit and work less (or, at least, work less on True!) Recently, you met the first outside writer I had hired, Jennifer Weiner. It’s time you met the second, Mike Straw. I did an interview with him over the weekend.
The Origin of “This is True”
When I had to change the name of this publication (anyone who got it under the original title, This Just In, is someone I consider an Old Timer among readers: I dropped it in April 1995!), I wracked my brain for a new title. But I’m not sure I’ve ever told the story about where “This is True” originally came into my life.
Pick Me! Pick Me! Pick Me!
As you probably know, I’ve been looking for a writer or three to help produce This is True. I had announced that I was thinking about retiring the publication so I could concentrate more on another project.
This is True List Break-in
From True’s 17 October 2010 issue.
On the whole, This is True readers are a pretty technically savvy bunch: many of you use “tracking” email addresses — addresses which readers have used only to subscribe to my newsletter(s) — and I’ve had a number of reports this week from readers who have received spam to those unique addresses. That’s obviously a big concern to me.
Not the End of True!
Time for an update on my The End of True? post from about a month ago — which is no longer online because it was confusing people.
Later Lyris: Arrived at AWeber
This week marks the first issue sent solely to the new distribution list. After months of notice, I have shut down the Lyris-based list, even though well over half the subscribers didn’t move to the new list, hosted by industry leader AWeber.
GOOHFy Anniversary
Oh! I just realized it’s an anniversary! When I went to look up what was the best story from 10 years ago, I realized that there were really two: Mike the Headless Chicken, and the story that led a reader to tell me I was, positively and without doubt, going to hell.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
A few weeks ago I grumbled in a newsletter about the lousy ads I was getting on one of my sites, which were bringing a whopping 4.8 cents per click. I said “I may try Bing ads instead if Google doesn’t get me better [ads] soon.”
How I Beat Spam
…Without Having to Change My email Address
My email address has been around online for many, many years, and it gets a lot of spam — many hundreds per day. For most users, spam far outstrips legitimate mail. It was 1996 that I realized that spam would become a huge problem, which is why I wrote my Spam Primer to educate my readers about it. And sadly I was right: it’s estimated that more than 90 percent of all email transmitted is spam. And how many of them get to my inbox? Lately, I’m averaging less than one a day.
The Future of Newspapers
When I started True back in 1994, there weren’t too many people online — especially compared to now. Once I quit my Day Job to pursue online publishing full time, I was constantly looking for peers — people to talk with that would understand what it was I was doing.
Herb Caen: Master of the Three Dots
This story is what got me started on remembering Herb Caen — it’s from True’s 17 May 2009 issue:
Changes to the Honorary Unsubscribe
Now and then, Premium subscribers — the paying customers which, I have said time and again, make True possible — get a little miffed that they get the Honorary Unsubscribe after it’s published in the free edition. Frankly, shouldn’t they get it either exclusively, or at the very least first?
Lifetime Subscriptions?
My mail isn’t all whining like last week’s post — far from it. I publish more of the whines because they’re so …well… entertaining! But Paul in Texas really liked last week’s issue. He wrote:
New ‘Deluxe’ GOOHF Card
I want to tell you about my new Get Out of Hell Free product. I’m really excited about it: I’ve been dropping hints about it for several weeks now, and I’m happy to say they start shipping Friday.
Expanding True’s Sources
A quick note about This is True’s story sources. When I started True, I wanted my stories to be from “mainstream, legitimate newspapers” — with an early addition being the weekly news magazines (like Time and Newsweek). I’ve always stayed away from broadcast sources, since I always want a printed version of a story to rely on.
Missing In Action
There was no free edition on Friday, August 22. There were definitely reasons for that, and at first I decided I wasn’t going to say all the reasons why. But after thinking about it, and recovering from the problem I’m about to tell you about, I decided I owed you an explanation.
Yahoo Debacle Update
Last week I announced a major disaster, and asked for your help in getting the word out about True to help reverse the problem. A good number of you listened, and helped. Thank you. While the threat isn’t gone, this newsletter will be able to continue.
Yahoo Alert: True’s Biggest Crisis Ever
Note: This is long-since solved, but leaving the page up for context, since many sites linked to it. -rc
I’ve given up trying to work with Yahoo, which represents the largest domain subscribed to True. There are more than 20,000 addresses within the Yahoo.com domain on True’s distribution (plus a couple thousand more on variants such as yahoo.co.uk, yahoo.ca, etc.)
Playboy likes True
If you made it to this page after reading about This is True in Playboy, you’ve at least proven that you do read the articles! This is True is the thinking person’s humor publication, just as Playboy might be considered the thinking person’s men’s magazine. I humbly believe Playboy agrees, since This is True and/or I have now been featured in their pages four five six times (no pictures, thankfully).