I’m Isaac Saul, and this is Tangle: an independent, nonpartisan, subscriber-supported politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from across the political spectrum on the news of the day — then “my take.”
Dear readers,
First and foremost, a programming note: The Tangle team will be off Wednesday through Friday, but we’ll be back in your inbox on Sunday and for a few days next week before the new year. I hope you all have a merry Christmas and happy holidays, and you get to enjoy some time off from the news (we’ll update you on everything you missed when we’re back, so feel free to take a break).
Second, as we head into this period of winter vacation, I wanted to thank you all for an incredible year. We’re still a bit short of our end-of-year subscription goal (so if you haven’t yet, please go subscribe or gift a subscription!), but on the whole, it’s been another fantastic year for Tangle. A few brief highlights, if you’ll indulge me:
- Our mailing list increased from 290,000 people to 460,000
- We brought in over $4 million in annual revenue
- Our full-time team grew from five people to 12
- We launched a texting service, our behind-the-scenes newsletter Press Pass, our weekly podcast Suspension of the Rules, and a subreddit
- We hosted our third live event, with our highest turnout to date
- Our podcast averaged over 500,000 downloads a month
- Our YouTube channel continued growing, surpassing 25,000 subscribers
- Our primary social channel, Instagram, grew 92%
- We introduced more voices, with featured posts from guest authors, more authors of the “My take” section, and even a “Staff dissent” feature
At our all-staff presentation last week, I shared some slides about our reach this year:
So, as we head into Christmas break, our team has a lot to be grateful for — and our audience (that’s you) continues to be a part of something special. Not only are you helping fund a profitable, independent media company (which is pretty rare these days), you’re supporting independent thinking and free speech along the way. By reading Tangle, you’re participating in an exercise that is foundational to the functioning of our society: the good-faith exchange of ideas, from diverse perspectives, in a way that can actually allow us to listen to others and even change our minds on occasion.
Looking ahead to 2026, we have some awesome things in the works: We are building out a list of contributing voices to bring on to the Tangle podcast and into our newsletter regularly. We’re planning to do more original reporting on our YouTube channel, and to begin recruiting more high profile guests to our podcast. We’re also exploring ways to bring Tangle to new mediums, including broadcast radio and social channels like TikTok. Along the way, we’re also hoping to develop more scientific polling and surveying, in ways where we can offer original insights into America through the Tangle audience.
So thank you. For being here. For supporting us. And for making this all possible.
Happy holidays, and we’ll see you next week.
Best,
Isaac & the Tangle team
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