Looking forward to getting this badddie yeah

This is equally a letter to you, dear readers, who care about a flourishing independent media scene and the sustainability of creative work.

So, brew a coffee — or, frankly, pour yourself a whiskey!

We begin with an anecdote about cafe toilets and petty theft:
www.esckey.co/the-death-of...

I want us to be optimistic, to a degree, about what we might build in the ashes.

But to do that, we need to be honest: Surviving in this new age requires skills rarely taught in journalism or writing school.

This is not to mourn some golden age, either. Not at all.

But we can’t ignore the fact that the media is, through layoffs and folding important publications, censoring the very voices we need right now.

Freelance journalism has never been harder at the time we need it the most.

This is not intended as a kind of doomer gatekeeping, as anyone who looks can see: there’s not much left behind the gate.

Indeed, I won't pretend: I’ve mostly stepped outside the gate myself, as I’ve found the state of corporate and venture-backed media increasingly demoralizing.

In the letter, I share two of the most important pieces of advice I can offer about freelance journalism — a career I’ve loved with all my heart and yet have, year after year, let go little by little.