The winds change.

I'm Isaac Saul, and this is Press Pass: Our once-a-month, members-only newsletter that pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of Tangle.

The winds change.

In our last edition of Press Pass, I told an alarming story about the state of media and the first real business challenge coming for Tangle. As that edition went out to paid subscribers, a separate edition went out to nearly 400,000 people on our free mailing list asking them to join us as members and support our work.

In just about 48 hours, we converted close to 2,000 new paid members to Tangle, a tremendous boon for our subscription growth. It was fulfilling (and exciting) to see how many people wanted to support us when we asked them the right way. 

We grew our paid subscribers by more in that 48-hour span than we had in the two previous months combined, setting off what has been a wild month both personally and professionally. I appeared on NewsNation, and then my wife and I closed on a house in New Jersey, setting us up for a move later this month. The next day, I got on a plane to Phoenix for a family reunion, and while that was going on, our Executive Producer Jon Lall and Senior Editor Will Kaback were in Utah to shoot a YouTube video about the Great Salt Lake. After Phoenix, I flew to Austin to speak at a media conference. On the flight home from Austin, our country thrust itself into a war with Iran, leading to a rare YouTube livestream where I answered your questions about the conflict. Finally, my personal life ran headfirst into politics when news broke of President Trump resurrecting plans to build a border wall in my backyard — which I wrote about last week.

I always talk about how long a month is in politics — and how much can change. But it’s amazing what a month can do in a business like ours, too.

Professionally, the highlight of the month for me was the New Media Summit in Austin, Texas. This was a gathering of some of the most successful newsletter and YouTube operators in the country, and a place where we could all share the secrets of the trade. I was a featured speaker for a one-on-one conversation on stage, a nice affirmation of the success we’ve had here at Tangle. 

I’ll be honest, though: Before I went up for my talk, I had been fuming.