In the fog of Covid in 2020, I quit my reporter job at BuzzFeed News and started Big Technology here on Substack. This was before a wave of journalists and opinion writers decamped from mainstream publications to ‘go independent,’ but the time was right for me. I had a new book, solid sourcing within big tech, a desire to write only my own stories, and a feeling the business of journalism was changing.
The move was risky, but I felt staying put would be riskier. So I jumped. Sure enough, BuzzFeed News closed three years later. And today, Big Technology is sustainable and turning five.
To mark the occasion, I’m going to share what I’ve learned over the past half-decade as an independent journalist. But first, I’ll note that Big Technology wouldn’t exist without you. Thank you for being here and giving me permission to do this work. I’m grateful to have such an incredible audience.
Big Technology’s toughest moment was the day before launch. I agonized over whether to do it, replaying the worst-case scenarios over in my head. Five years later, I’m glad I didn’t listen to the fear. I’ll always remember a fellow media entrepreneur sliding into my DMs at launch and assuring me I’d never regret the choice. “Allies will surface, ones you never realized you had,” he wrote. He was right. Getting ‘out there’ often opens up opportunities that don’t exist when you’re working within an organization.
Unearthing new information, providing ‘analytical scoops,’ and landing big interviews are the key ingredients to making this work. I’m reminded of that lesson every time I let my attention drift. It’s sometimes hard to let business opportunities go by in service of spending time calling sources (and writing), but it’s a must. Better stories and better interviews lead to a larger audience, which is good for business in the long run. Good journalism is good business.
When I started Big Technology, I wanted to create a publication with as little dependency on social media algorithms as possible. So I picked a newsletter and a podcast, two formats delivered via subscription — not feed ranking — where audiences build slowly over time. My theory was if I could put out regular, high-quality work, people would keep opening the newsletter and listening to the show, and that growth would compound over time. Well, it’s working. The newsletter has 165,000+ active subscribers. The podcast has grown steadily over time and is currently setting its all-time record for monthly downloads this June (see monthly download chart above). I keep thinking about how the trend might continue over the next five years. I’m hopeful this will be my last job.
The biggest mistake I made running Big Technology was waiting to turn on our paid product. My plan was to run ads as long as possible and only go paid once 100,000 people subscribed. Then, in 2022, my ad strategy ran into an ad pullback and this publication entered its deepest period of uncertainty. Ads come and go (we haven’t run any the past few weeks), but regular support from paid subscribers means this newsletter won’t go out of business. I also think our paid subscribers get a great deal, with access to additional reporting and membership to our private Discord server (the best new product I’ve launched here in years). If you’re subscribed, thank you from the bottom of my heart. And if you’d like to consider joining, here’s a discount.
In 2025, ChatGPT is Big Technology’s No. 5 referral source, and has sent this publication multiple paid subscribers. ChatGPT-referred visitors are also converting to paid at a higher rate than Google-referred visitors. The ChatGPT traffic numbers aren’t massive yet, but I imagine they’ll
