FULL EPISODE: PRESS PASS - I’m going back to my roots. And a very special announcement.
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How did Tangle grow from a solo newsletter into a full media team?
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome to Press Pass. This is our once a month members only podcast where we pull back the curtain on the inner workings of Tangle. When I started this newsletter and podcast seven years ago, it was just me and the blinking cursor on a blank Google document. As I look back on the newsletter editions I wrote during the early days of Tangle, a few things stand out. The writing is more raw and less polished, the newsletters are shorter and more digestible, some just a six or seven minute read, and my personality shines through in unvarnished ways that feel different from how it does now. There are downsides to each of these. Raw, less polished writing is also writing begging for an editor.
Mistakes in typos and outright errors went undiscovered. The newsletters were shorter, yes, but also sometimes lacked nuance and typically didn't go any deeper than our short form competitors. I had to do all the research and writing and editing by myself and it showed. And sure, my personality shined through, but at times it needed to be reined in. What was left was too much Isaac and not enough viewpoint diversity or professional polish. I never expected that we'd be where we are today. Hundreds of thousands of daily readers and monthly listeners, tens of thousands of paying subscribers and recognition from all across the country and the world for what we're building. I certainly never expected to have over a dozen full-time employees and an entire staff of writers and editors.
As the Tangle brand has grown, my personal brand has taken a back seat for good reason. I've wanted to introduce the distinct viewpoints from our team. Ari Weitzman Will Kaback Audrey Moorhead Kmele Foster Carina Pacheco Russell Nystrom Isaac Wood and more I've wanted to bring outside writers to contribute to our publication. I've wanted to let Jon Lall, Aidan Gorman, and Michele Teodori create new content for YouTube, pursuing stories well suited for a visual medium and putting their own spin and perspective on them. We have done all of that, and I'm supremely proud of what my colleagues and I have built.
Why does Isaac Saul want more space to share his personal opinions?
Concurrently, I also take up less space in Tangle's editorial process and I have fewer opportunities to share what's on my mind. I'm both happy and fulfilled by this development and glad for a semblance of work-life balance, yet I'm also eager to share more of my ideas that never make it to print. I have so many opinion essays outlined and just sitting in my drafts folder, so many thoughts I just flush down the toilet of X rather than turn into a YouTube video or fleshed out piece. I have a lot of ideas I want to stress test with the public, yet somehow fewer and fewer spaces to share them, despite running a growing news organization. It's an odd and paradoxical downside of building a team. I've been thinking about how to recapture some of what made those early editions so popular while also preserving the professional excellence we've developed today.
We have some stuff in the works that I'm excited to roll out in the coming weeks. I'm planning to launch a separate newsletter under my name to share occasional opinion essays on stories we don't get to in the typical week of Tangle. We're also thinking about how to make the Daily Tangle newsletters more digestible, reducing the word count a bit and cutting some sections people don't tend to read. We also hope to keep featuring new voices both from inside tangle and out. But in the immediate term, we have one big offering that we're excited to announce. We're launching the Isaac Saul YouTube channel.
What will Isaac Saul’s new YouTube channel cover?
When we first started the Tangle YouTube channel, I was adopting takes I'd written for the newsletter, and we were having some success. But it was also a ton of work to manage while I was writing most of the newsletter every day. As the team grew, we offloaded the YouTube channel to our executive producer, John Lall, and other contributors, and I took a backseat. As that happened, the team started producing original explainers and on the ground reporting.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Tangle grow from a solo newsletter into a full media team?
0:10–2:18
2
Why does Isaac Saul want more space to share his personal opinions?
2:18–3:42
3
What will Isaac Saul’s new YouTube channel cover?
3:42–5:38
4
How did Tangle video editor Mikele Teodori join the team?
5:38–8:56
5
How did growing up in Florence shape Mikele Teodori’s political views?
8:56–12:25
6
Why did Mikele choose Tangle, and what makes video editing effective?
12:25–15:01
7
What does Mikele miss about Italy after moving to the United States?
15:01–16:08
8
How can listeners support Isaac Saul’s new YouTube channel?
16:08–16:56
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Tangle
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The rise of GLP-1s.
Suspension of the rules. - Isaac, Kmele and Ari talk about the historic speech at the UN General Assembly, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Hassan Piker.
The U.S.–Greenland Deal.
The White House press bans.