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This is a free preview of our once-a-month, members-only newsletter called "Press Pass" that pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of Tangle. To read the whole thing, you'll be asked to subscribe — but you can enjoy this preview for free.

One thing I’ve learned after seven years of writing Tangle is that our products appeal to different people for different reasons.

When I’m trying to pitch Tangle to a general audience, I’ll say something like, “This is a way to get out of your bubble — to hear arguments from across the political spectrum. We’re a response to the broken, partisan media landscape.”

When I’m pitching Tangle to a liberal, I might say something like, “This newsletter will help you understand how people can still back Trump. Conservatives have lots of good arguments, and they support him for reasons that have nothing to do with racism or hate — this project can help you understand those people better.”

When I’m pitching Tangle to a conservative, I might say something like, “I’m a journalist who recognizes that our legacy media organizations are broken, so I left the mainstream media and started something new to try and fix it. I have friends and family from across the political spectrum, and I am trying to create a news organization they can all trust.”

These pitches work for different people, and I’m fascinated by those implications: Everyone is here for a different reason. Sometimes, a reader will sign up for Tangle and immediately unsubscribe when they see “My take.” They’ll write in: “I thought this was a nonpartisan newsletter? I don’t want your opinion! I just want to see the facts and the arguments!”

Other people will tell us: “To be honest, I usually skim the top part of the newsletter and just scroll down to your take. It’s my favorite part, and it’s what I’m interested in every day.”

As Tangle continues to grow, this disparity is becoming one of our top challenges. We want to be a big-tent media organization, but that means trying to be many things at once — to appeal to many people at once — which is a good way for most businesses to fail. This is especially true in such a polarized environment, where people are offended so easily, and where liberals and conservatives might unsubscribe for totally opposite reasons after reading the same exact piece.

Everything we’ve done so far has worked to get us to 500,000 readers, but will it work to get to five million? Are there even five million people who want to get out of their news bubbles and hear arguments from across the political spectrum? Do we even want that big of an audience? Some days it feels like yes — absolutely, to all of the above. Other days… I’m not so sure.

These questions are top of mind for me after a busy six weeks capped by our annual summer recess, which provided a full week to slow down, sit on the beach, and reflect on our business (on that note: Sorry we missed our usual Press Pass release — it fell during our break, so we’ll be releasing them at a new monthly cadence starting now).

This year, I escaped to Cape Cod, a place I grew up visiting and where, coincidentally, my wife and her family have vacationed every year of her life. This was the first time in a few years the family vacation fell on Tangle’s summer recess, which was a real blessing. My wife and I experienced the unmitigated joy of watching our 18-month-old son fall in love with this place that has meant so much to our families for so long:

Isaac's son enjoying the ocean water in Cape Cod. Photo: Isaac Saul

Isaac's son enjoying the fresh water at one of Cape Cod's famous kettle ponds. Photo: Isaac Saul

While August was punctuated by a much-needed vacation, it was hardly restful.

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