Free Thinking

Paid subscriptions suspended

I have never made much money from this site. However, I’ve had a (very small) core group of paid subscribers since the site started accepting paid subscriptions a few years ago. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all.

However, I’ve now taken the decision to switch off monetisation on the The New Era.

There are a few reasons.

Firstly, while it is very gratifying to have people pay me - it’s the ultimate vote of thanks for a writer - I don’t need the money and it’s never exactly been lucrative anyway. And I don’t want people to get the impression that I write in order to be paid or to gain ‘influence’ for sponsors or subscribers. Or that money in any way influences what I write or how I think. Or that I write what I think my paying subscribers will want to read.

But the more important reason is this. For several weeks now, I have been receiving emails from Stripe, Substack’s exclusive payment processor, insisting that I have to provide lots of personal information (including a copy of my passport and facial scans) in order to put my ‘account in order’ and to maintain payments. Stripe is not a bank. It’s a payment processor. So I’m not prepared to send this digital data to an organisation that has no right to hold it.

In a recent interview I made clear that I was able to express opinions and exercise free speech because I was fortunate enough not to need money to do what I do. That puts me in an extraordinarily fortunate position. It means that whatever I write I’m not being incentivised to do so by clicks, payments or eyeballs.

I’d like to thank the thousands of you who have subscribed to this site because you get some value from my writing, interviews or perspectives. All posts, from now on, will be open for comments from the entire subscriber base. But, please, keep it clean and keep it courteous.

Remember, the best way to support free thinking and freedom of speech is to read and to engage. And feel free to disagree with me.

Also if you have a burning desire to write for the site - even just a guest opinion piece - do get in touch.