Lowpass is very much a continuation of those efforts: I recently acquired the subscriber list of the Protocol Entertainment newsletter, which I co-authored until Protocol shut down late last year. Now, I'm hitting the ground running with an audience of close to 20k readers.
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I've got some exciting news to share: I'm going pro with my newsletter! This Thursday, I'm officially launching Lowpass as an independent newsletter publication.
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Lowpass is a weekly newsletter about the future of entertainment and the next big hardware platforms, including smart TVs, ambient computing and AR/VR. I've covered this area in one way or another for around two decades (I know, I'm old), most recently at Protocol.
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Lowpass is a weekly newsletter with both a free and an $8 a month paid tier, coming to your inbox every Thursday.
And if you value my work and independent tech journalism, I encourage you to upgrade to the paid tier.
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You can find additional details in my announcement post … … or just keep reading for some thoughts on why I decided to do this, and what my plans are going forward.
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Protocol’s abrupt closure late last year was a bit of a deja vu for me: Eight years ago, Gigaom also shut down with a few hours notice. And just as with Gigaom, Protocol's closure left me with the feeling that my job wasn't done.
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Only this time around, there was a clearer path forward to continue on my own. I quietly soft-launched Lowpass in January with weekly issues about streaming, AR, VR, home audio and more.
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Since then, I’ve written about Netflix gaming, Sonos and Holoride, and broken news about Meta acquiring an optics startup, Roku expanding into home security and Samsung looking to work with its TV competitors. And somehow, I even managed to get onto
@Techmeme
twice 😊
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Still, the launch of a paid newsletter was not an easy decision, and figuring out the details around tiers and rewards was even more challenging. So I asked myself: What do I want as a newsletter reader?
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Two things are on top of my personal list of pet peeves with regards to newsletters: I don't like overly ambitious posting schedules, and I don't like paywalls in my inbox.
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It's easy to fall into a hamster wheel trap for newsletter writers these days, especially with platforms like Substack encouraging them to give most of their content away for free WHILE ALSO writing great stuff for their paying audience.
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As a reader, I prefer quality over quantity. And as a writer, I'd rather spend some extra time writing a great weekly newsletter than having to worry what to write about for four or five weekly posts.
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Another thing I find frustrating as a newsletter reader are emails that consist of little more than a headline and a paywall. I understand why writers do this on occasion. But if every other email is just a sales pitch, I likely won't read the free stuff either.
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That's why non-paying Lowpass subscribers will find something useful in their inbox every Thursday. About twice a month, that will be the entire newsletter. During weeks with premium-only content, they will still get curated links, and the occasional extra story.
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Subscribers who opt to pay $8 a month () will get the complete newsletter every week. They will also have access to every article on the Lowpass website, and will be invited to a subscriber-only Slack workspace for networking, live chats and more.
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If you value my work, I’d ask you to give the paid tier a try. And if you can get the subscription reimbursed, my suggestion is to go for the $80 a year plan. Not only is it cheaper, but expensing it is also far less of a hassle.
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Lastly, paying for Lowpass is also an investment in the future of quality tech journalism. If you think that there's a need for the kind of work I did at Gigaom and Protocol, then this is your chance to ensure that there's a place for it going forward.
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So please subscribe to Lowpass (), and if you can, sign up for its premium tier (). I promise it will be worth it.
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