Hello everyone! This is just a quick update to let you know that there won’t be any emails from Inkcap this week.
Sadly, this is not because I’ve got any special adventures planned but because I’m migrating Inkcap over to a new platform.
To date, I’ve been using Substack to send out these emails. That worked well for a while, but it is becoming expensive, and there have been some concerns about its editorial policies. I won’t go into them in detail here, but there was a New York Times article about some of the problems on the weekend.
So I’m moving Inkcap to a new platform called Ghost. It’s the cheaper, more ethical option – and it will allow me to build a more beautiful and flexible website.
This won’t affect you or your subscription, and you don’t need to do anything. It just means that Inkcap emails will look very slightly different in the future.
Ghost recommends that you don’t send out any emails while they do the migration, so I’m taking a short enforced break this week. I’ll be using that time to figure out how to use the new platform and to design the website. I’m also planning some exciting features for the coming months.
I’d also like to use this time to reflect on the future of Inkcap.
This little publication, which I started at the very beginning of lockdown, is now almost a year old. It has around 5,000 subscribers, and thousands more people read it online every week. It is starting to feel like it has real influence, and with that comes additional responsibility.
It would really help me to know what you value most, if there’s anything you would change, what topics you’d like to see Inkcap write about in the future – and anything else that you think might generally improve our work. You can leave a comment or contact me personally by replying to this email.
I want to build upon this platform. I established Inkcap because I thought that UK nature deserved more in-depth journalistic coverage – something that I see as an ongoing journey, rather than a task to tick off. As a one-person operation, I don’t have any colleagues to discuss these things with, which makes feedback from readers all the more valuable.
Finally, if you can afford it, please consider supporting Inkcap by becoming a paid subscriber.
You’ll have noticed that I’ve been publishing a lot more articles by other journalists recently. This is central to Inkcap’s mission. I don’t want it to be about me and my writing, but a place for diverse voices, topics and perspectives – a place that other environmental journalists approach to publish their best work.
But commissioning journalists costs money: I want to pay writers as well as I can, but the only funding I have comes from Inkcap’s paying subscribers. To become one of them, click on the button below. You will be directly funding independent environmental journalism.
I think that’s it for now. Thank you for reading, thank you for your patience, and thank you for being a part of the Inkcap community. I’ll see you soon!
Sophie
I have been a ecological farmer for 50 years, fitting food production efficiently produced with the whole farm being a nature reserve. As you know farming for human food production is the greatest threat to planet earth in the long term, therefore it is crucial that people understand this and develop alternative agriculture as a MUST. I will write an article about this if you like?
I love reading the positive environmental stories as these are so uplifting amidst the daily gloom. Two recent ones that spring to mind are the stories about seaweed harvesting and about using horses and ploughs last week. As just a member of the public I'd like to see occasional articles on how the public can become involved in helping preserve our beautiful planet. I like to read about research collaboration with colleagues abroad (even more important post Brexit) but above all I'd like to say thank you for setting up Inkcap. I know what it takes to start one's own business. Inkcap a joy to read. Keep going! It's all worth it!