"The Geyser" Turns 0.5

Six months of posts, a lot of topics covered, and just getting started

"The Geyser" Turns 0.5

Six months ago today, I launched “The Geyser,” my successor to “The Scholarly Kitchen.” In addition to wanting to mix things up, I also wanted to “walk the talk” when it came to subscriptions and recurring revenue (and recapture and expand upon the benefits both have on editorial behavior). When Substack’s platform magically appeared before me at about the same time, offering an easy and elegant way to launch a new subscription offering, I knew it was time to take the plunge.

Results so far have been excellent, and I’m very glad I made the move.

I hope some of what has appeared here has made a difference and helped people. Some posts — how widely they’ve been read and shared — suggest this might be the case.

In that spirit, here’s a quick rundown of some of the hot topics and posts over this initial period.

Plan S has been a consistent topic of interest over the past six months, of course, with the following posts jumping out as especially popular:

Other topics of interest have been more workaday, such as the following:

Because we live in dehumanizing times, where rhetorical points are treasured over all, I’ve tried to make “The Geyser” a place where the people who work on scholarly publishing are humanized and appreciated for their dedication and care. To that end, I’ve been working to feature interviews when possible. Some of the most popular have been:

Some popular posts have asked uncomfortable questions or confronted touchy subjects with what I hope is an unsparing but fair eye:

One of the highlights of the new approach has been seeing posts shared widely by subscribers, which then results in subscriptions coming back. This speaks to two important aspects of “The Geyser” — first, the essays are proving valuable enough for important people to share with their network; and second, recipients often respond so strongly they explore the site and decide to subscribe.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be covering new and emerging technologies, developments in strategic options, implications of larger tech and societal developments, and interviews with various leaders in the industry.

I invite you to subscribe — to access the already-deep archives, to guarantee you don’t miss anything in the future, to increase your own networking value, and to gain an advantage when it comes to strategy, news, and translational thinking.

Thanks.


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