ANNOUNCEMENT: A new plan for focusing on the kind of journalism YOU care about (I'm excited!)

When I went independent, I was terrified it wasn’t going to work — so I threw everything at the wall. And I mean everything.

I’ve never shied away from hard work, dating back to when I worked at a 24-hour diner in high school. So I locked in, took on a huge lift, and told myself it was “just for now.”

I’ve been researching, scripting, filming and editing short-form news videos five days per week. I also do a weekly Tuesday night stream, and I’ve been scripting, booking and recording a live podcast.

In the background of all of that, I also regularly travel across Canada to speak in front of Canadians, do freelance investigative pieces and videos for the Tyee and the National Observer, and run my media business — which includes all the financial and logistical work that comes with that.

I’m going to be honest. It’s too much. It’s not sustainable. And I’m burning out. I also can’t give you the quality of reporting that I want to provide when I’m treading water.

So in recent weeks, I’ve been thinking about why I do this and what I’m good at. I keep coming back to my investigative pieces. The moments when I’ve broken news, like when I unmasked Nazis in my city or laid out Canadian companies profiting from ICE.

When I have time to do that work, it’s some of the most impactful stuff I do. It’s also when you folks upgrade to being paid subscribers, keeping this work free and accessible for those who don’t have the means to pay to support it.

Speaking of which, if you have the means, subscribing helps keep this work alive. Thank you! ❤️

But those kinds of investigations take time. Right now, when I do this work, it comes at the expense of my actual life. Getting these investigations out means spending late nights — sometimes into the early hours of the morning — at my desk. Weekends. Zero time for friends, family, anything. I can’t keep it up. Honestly, it’s hard not to feel like a failure when I think about it. I thought if I just worked hard enough, it would get easier. But why would it? I’m literally just one person, and there are limits to the hours one person has in the day.

I’m scared that if I keep trying to keep this pace up, you’ll get more and more commentary, which is easier to churn out, and less and less time-consuming journalism. My videos will become lower quality. And when I look at what you guys actually watch, when you actually pay to subscribe, it’s not the podcast that keeps you here. It’s when I do real, proper journalism.

So, for now, I’m retiring my podcast. I’m also going slow down to publishing three videos per week, so that I can take those two extra days (well, one and a half really, because one of them is still a livestreaming day) to work ahead on the kind of high-quality journalism you’ve come to expect from me, as well as to stay on top of all that other stuff that allows me to pay my rent while still doing this for a living: freelance work, speaking gigs and the book proposal I should really be working on.

Eventually, my hope is that this means I can pump out more high quality, investigative work. I want to do deep dives into the issues you care about, from continuing to unmask neo nazis to exposing the other things hurting our democracy, like the encroachment of for-profit healthcare and the corruption from some provincial governments.

And, because I still stream every Tuesday, I have a space where I can do the occasional high-quality interview when the moment calls for it.

So thank you, so much, for being here. Thank you for listening, and thank you for believing in my journalism.

While this might feel sad for some of you, I think you’ll find it’s going to help keep the quality of my work up — or even see it get better — in the long term.

Because with your support, I want to keep doing this for a long long time to come.

Thank you ❤️

SUBSCRIBE ✨

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APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/bubble-pop-with-rachel-gilmore/id1796286766

Видео ANNOUNCEMENT: A new plan for focusing on the kind of journalism YOU care about (I'm excited!) канала Rachel Gilmore