Roughly one year ago, this Substack newsletter began.
History Club already existed, of course, having started on Clubhouse in August 2020. But two early members and supporters of History Club—McKenna Walsh and Claire Atkin—convinced me to start this Substack. “People want to hear from you,” they each told me (these were separate conversations, yet they unfolded similarly). “You can give people advanced notice of History Club events. You can send out podcast recordings of History Club conversations. You can let people know what’s on your mind. People will want to hear from you.”
Not surprisingly, these two brilliant women were onto something. Not so much about me, but rather their recognition that an appetite for historically-informed, civic-minded writing and conversation existed—and that History Club could satisfy it.
Fast forward one year and this Substack has far exceeded expectations. Not because of me, but because of you. You’ve read. You’ve responded. You’ve commented. You’ve thought critically and analytically. You’ve distributed and shared with others. As a result, the History Club newsletter has been viewed more than 39,000 times. You’ve allowed this newsletter to amass some pretty impressive numbers.
Did you know the industry standard for newsletter open rates is 7 percent? In other words, for every newsletter sent into cyberspace, 7 percent of subscribers open it. The standard click-through rate? Two percent. Two percent of readers click a link inside a newsletter. Those numbers come from marketing executives in Silicon Valley who measure and track these things relentlessly. (They’re also used to convince clients that email is dead and they should use text messaging or social media. That’s a subject for another day).
Well, after one year, History Club has an open rate of 44 percent. More than six times the industry average. And it’s not a small sample size. This year we sent 57 newsletters. On average, 44 percent of you opened it each time it arrived in your inbox. That’s incredible. And that average is not skewed by early newsletters where we had fewer readers. The open rates have actually been increasing, exceeding 50 percent the past two months. And our click-through rates? They average 10 percent. Five times the industry standard.
That’s a testament to you. When the U.S. departed Afghanistan in summer 2021, and nearly every media outlet wanted to draw analogies to Vietnam, you recognized those analogies concealed as much as they revealed, and embraced our “Afghanistan is not Vietnam” piece. You were curious to learn about how #ConstitutionDAO put the museum world on notice, whether history museums could survive the pandemic, and wanted to know about both Jewish American soldiers in WWII and Chinese American soldiers in WWII. You read, shared and commented about the decline of American labor unions, how science communicators talk about climate change, why history matters to journalism and whether the U.S. Congress is too old to regulate Big Tech. You listened to podcast episodes on Howard Zinn, the filibuster and U.S.-China relations. Finally, in perhaps the most eye-opening statistic of the year, our most-read piece was “Don’t share links on social media,” which racked up the most views of any article on the site without once being shared on social media (so far as I can tell)—proving the point that business models are possible that don’t rely on re-tweets, virality and click-bait headlines.
So, where do we go from here?
The plan is to keep growing History Club in a number of directions:
Expand and diversify the voices you hear and read. I’ll continue to write and host, of course. But there are many other brilliant thinkers out there beyond the usual talking heads we see and hear in major media outlets. I want to use this newsletter and History Club to bring those voices into the conversation. And unlike other media outlets, who often ask their guests to contribute in exchange for promises of “exposure,” we’ll compensate our contributors using $JASON coin.
Record History Club events, turn them into podcasts, and share them. In the early days of Clubhouse, recording events involved hiring an audio contractor. Now, Clubhouse has a recording function built into the app. We’re going to utilize this amazing functionality (hooray for Clubhouse!) to record History Club conversations and make them more widely accessible.
Host subscriber-only salons, book talks, and debates. A portion of you support this publication as paid monthly subscribers or as founding patrons. Some also have contributed $JASON coin, which also underwrites History Club. To thank you for your support, you will start to see some History Club content and events that are for paid supporters-only, including live Q&A’s with me and other brilliant thinkers, as well as exclusive book events and early access to content. Don’t want to miss out? Now’s your chance to subscribe. (Let’s reach that 10% click-through rate!)
Lastly, I want to thank you.
Your support has allowed me to build and grow History Club into what it is today. This coming year, with luck and your support, it will grow further. But the goal will remain the same: a space for those who want historically-informed and civic-minded conversations that instill media literacy and historical literacy into the public sphere.
If that prospect excites you, you’re in the right place.
Here’s to a great year ahead.
History Club exists because of you. If you believe in what we’re doing—and want to wish this newsletter a happy first birthday—please support us: