Wow!!

Links is a bestseller. *Thank you.*

I feel some pressure to appear especially smart or witty in my first post-relaunch mailing, but: ALAS. “Holy shit” is the only phrase occurring to me at the moment. 

Holy shit to all the people who upgraded their subscriptions in the past 36 hours, often with enormously kind and funny notes. 

Holy shit to the 800+ new readers joining us.

Holy shit to becoming a Substack bestseller on day one, after literal years of wondering how this would go. 

And holy shit to the current cost of an international forever stamp — but also, who cares!!!, because nothing will give me greater pleasure than shipping Links stickers to motherloving Switzerland. 

Friends: I can’t thank you enough for your support or your enthusiasm about the relaunch. Links has been a labor of love for years. It’s STILL a labor of love, to be clear, but since love will not buy my groceries or replace my dearly departed laptop, I am delighted (and like, truly, unspeakably grateful) that so many of you have chosen to support this project.

Announcing the long-awaited Links relaunch

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Last night, I had the amazing, absurd experience of trying to explain this whole thing to my mom, which really drove home for me what a weird and extraordinary privilege it is to get paid to write like this. My mom is aware of “the email thing,” but definitely doesn’t read Links and has absolutely no concept of ~the newsletter economy.~

“Think of it like a tiny online newspaper, and I’m the publisher,” I said. (Speaking un-metaphorically was getting us nowhere.) “So like, today — for the first time — people could buy subscriptions to my tiny newspaper.”

 “But it’s not a tiny newspaper. It’s an email.” 

[...] “Yes.” 

“And people bought these subscriptions?”

“Yeah, people all over the world.”

“Wow!! I think your father gets it.” [Pause.] “And he said that he would send it to me, but he says a lot of things that never happen.”¹

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If you plan to upgrade your subscription and haven’t done so yet, now’s as good a time as any. It’s a *better* time than any, actually, because after learning how much cheaper stickers get per unit when you buy them in bulk, I’m sending them to everyone who upgrades to paid this week. 

As a reminder, in addition to the usual Saturday and Wednesday editions, paid subscribers receive: 

• Additional paywalled essays that I deem too spicy or off-the-wall for general consumption

• Free access to linked articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic, via those publications’ gift article programs 

• Early access to experiments and features, including a likely online book club

• All posts to IRL, my nascent personal blog

• A free link on your birthday (mysterious! weird!)

• My sincere and almost frightfully bottomless gratitude

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But please: Don’t take my word for it. Here are some incredibly nice things people are saying about Links:

• “I would be lost on the internet without Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends.” —Brian Stelter (former CNN, The Morning Show)

• “Smart, funny [and] meticulous … it’s the only newsletter you’ll want to remain a reader of ten years down the line.” —Katie, subscribed 10 years

• “I can recommend it, but what I can’t do is recommend it enough.” —Rusty Foster (Today in Tabs)²

• “Reading Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends for the past nine years has been utterly formative to my personal understanding of internet culture (that is, pop culture!). Caitlin always delivers the best links you haven't seen yet — she's a pioneer of the form.” —Delia Cai (Deez Links)

• “Links has been a vital and lively digest of the best the internet has to offer for years — now with even more original writing and reporting! A subscription worth every penny.” —Eric, subscribed 4+ years 

• “This is my favorite newsletter and the one that most often leaves me laughing, thinking and forwarding.” —Chelsea, subscribed 4+ years

Your next email from me will, scout’s honor, be the regularly scheduled Saturday edition.³ Until then, thanks for making the dream work. It’s almost like … you really are my friends. 🥲

Caitlin

1. For the record and my father’s sake: This was a joke! My dad is great.

2. But if you’re here for a Tabs replacement while Rusty hikes the Appalachian Trail … I’m gonna need you to manage your expectations.

3. I’ll likely send *one* more relaunch follow-up before the week is out, but plz rest assured: I respect the sanctity of the inbox AND I hate writing these promotional emails as much as, if not more than, you hate reading them.