The Ankler Grows: A Reader Update

Interrupting your regularly scheduled day with a little Ankler news about our new upgraded service, where this is all headed and what it means to you.

For the past year plus, I've been putting out this underground newsletter, establishing an independent voice covering the most exciting, insane and twisted industry on earth during the most tumultuous days in its history. It's been a thrill to cover it, and immensely gratifying to be able to do it thanks to all the folks who have supported this endeavor with your time, wisdom, insights, advice, tips from behind the curtain, and, very importantly, your subscriptions which have allowed me to keep doing this.

Now it is time to turn this little hot dog stand into something more substantial so that I can have the stability to devote myself 1000 percent to this and grow it in exciting new ways, to provide even more coverage for you.

The first part of this transition is The Ankler has moved to join Substack, the company that has really been pioneering the newsletter revolution by developing tools to create a complete content house in the hands of independent publishers.

What the heck does this mean to you and what the hell do you care if I move to some new platform? 

Well . . . it will mean a new look for the Ankler. The same basic style but more streamlined from what sometimes looked like a hoarder’s garage of newsletter layout. No doubt it’s going to be a work in progress for a few weeks so bear with us and if you have any thoughts, please send them my way as ever at richard@theankler.com.

For those of you with active subscriptions, you can log into your accounts at Substack or via the next issue if you want to make any changes. Best of all, this change will bring with it a technical support desk, so those of you who have corresponded with me trying to solve the mysteries of spam filters will now have some much more lucid actual experts to talk with going forward. (Reach out to them at support@substack.com if you have any difficulties or questions.)

For those who aren’t subscribers yet but have signed on for the preview edition, this is your chance to get in on the ground floor of this new chapter. Click below and subscribe today!

This change is happening alongside another one. As promised the low low introductory price window of The Ankler is coming to an end. With this move, we’re leaping out of beta and charging a permanent grown-up price for subscriptions. Going forward, we’ll be offering a year of The Ankler for $90, or you can subscribe at the monthly rate of just $10.

If you're just coming aboard and considering subscribing,  this price will mean you don't miss out on a thing. Never go into your AM meeting not knowing what everyone is whispering about.  Get in on the action today!

And if you are a continuing subscriber, just a notice that all subscriptions will be renewed at this rate going forward.  

And one more thing, while The Ankler encourages you to pass along our new issues if you want to share it with friends, we ask you not to do that more than a few times per issue.  For those of you who are routinely distributing each issue to, say your office, unfortunately you'll soon be hearing from us about that. 

But with an exciting new offer!  The Ankler with Substack is now pleased to announce corporate subscriptions.  Buy a subscription that allows your entire crew to read every dispatch and make sure no one on your team is missing out on what the town is talking about.  Click here to sign up for a group subscription today! 

With this new rate, The Ankler will be able not only to assure its survival but actually, finally grow and start adding more features and broader coverage, while remaining the one true independent voice holding the industry’s feet to the fire.

Among those new features: more issues, more topics, and more voices adding to the mix, bringing the Ankler’s blend of fearless reporting and withering commentary to a much wider purview.

We’ll also be adding two features much requested by readers who have stayed with me through these early beta years: subscriber comments and searchable archives, both of which should be up and running with the changeover. In particular, I’m very excited for comments to start bringing in reader voices to the topics and hopefully spark real discussion on many of these issues; not to mention give you a place to tell me off at a public level. So let ‘em rip.

I’m very grateful to everyone who joined me as the Charter, Premiere, Flagship, Pioneer’s Club readers in these first two years. Your support has allowed me to live this dream of creating something that would watch over this wild world of ours, without having to answer to the tentacles of a compromised, clickbait-hungry corporate overlord. 

I wanted to create something where my only constituent was my committed readers and no one else, and you all have allowed me to do that.

So I’m asking my readers from these early beta days two things:

1. Your support in this price increase. It’s what has to happen so The Ankler can grow and deliver even better, more fearless coverage for you.

2. If you enjoy and value The Ankler, bring a friend. I don’t market this newsletter; we’ve grown entirely on the word of mouth of our readers, and I need your help to keep growing. If every reader who appreciates what we’re bringing you could get one friend to sign up, we’d make a huge stride towards being able to grow and expand this enterprise.

I’ll never forget all the support I’ve received from so many readers and new friends here. I hope you’ll join with me on this next stage of the journey. If it presents real hardship for you, let me know.   As ever, I'm at richard@theankler.com.  Please reach out with questions, complaints, comments, concerns or general harumphs any time. Always happy to hear from you.

And if you’re getting this, but are not really on board with Hollywood’s favorite secret, here’s your chance. Subscribe now and we’ll see you here.