LiB is going away for a while

It's not you, it's me

Hi. This is Rob. I’m the editor of London in Bits.

I don’t often write in the first person, but this issue is a little different, so you’ll have to bear with me for a few minutes.

This is going to be the last issue of London in Bits for a little while. Maybe forever. I’m not sure yet.

I’ll take a second to explain why, but if you’re a paying subscriber and you just want to know what the situation is about refunds etc, then you can skip to the section headlined ‘The money bit’.

The personal bit

I started LiB during lockdown because I was fed up with the lack of good, independent writing about the city I live in. That obviously struck a chord, because thousands of you have subscribed over the past two and half years, and hundreds of you have been good enough to pay to support what I’ve been trying to do.

I’m really proud that I haven’t missed an issue in all that time (apart from planned breaks) and being able to publish great writing by people that I admire is incredibly gratifying. So is watching new subscribers come in and receiving emails and messages of encouragement from readers.

I have had a great time doing this and I don’t want to stop. But…

Two and half years is a long time to be writing, commissioning and editing a newsletter. This isn’t my day job and LiB only makes enough money right now to pay contributors, not ‘staff’. I have to balance the production of this newsletter with the other parts of my life, and if that balance tips to the degree that it starts impacting the quality of what people are paying for, then I have to really think hard about what to do next.

I could change the frequency of the newsletter and/or the cost of it, and I have thought seriously about those things. But managing that also takes time and effort and raises questions about how much of LiB I could keep completely free; something which has always been very important to me. At the bottom of this email you’ll find a poll, with a few options that I’ve considered. If you feel strongly about any of those then please do click the relevant buttons. It will help shape what happens next.

The money bit

So, what does happen next?

Short answer: I’m going to take some time to think about it. That might mean I revive LiB in a month or two in exactly the same format, or it comes back in some new shape, or I go do something else entirely.

Substack gives writers the choice to ‘pause’ a newsletter (stop charging paying subscribers and not accept any new ones), or to turn off paid subscriptions entirely (cancel all paid subscriptions, and refund them for any time remaining).

I’m choosing to turn off paid subscriptions entirely because I’m not sure when or how LiB will come back and the last thing I want to do is mess you around, especially if you’ve been good enough to pay for this thing!

That means if LiB does come back then I’ll have to start building up paying subscribers from scratch, but I’d much rather do that than keep things in limbo indefinitely.

If you’ve become a paying subscriber in the past month then I’m going to manually refund your money, I’m not sure how Substack works out it’s ‘prorated refunds’ so it feels easier (and fairer) just to give you the £5 back.

Everyone else should automatically get a refund for the time remaining on their subscription, as well as an email from Substack confirming the refund and saying your subscription has been cancelled.

If you have any questions, you can email me on londoninbits@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for reading London in Bits, whether you’ve been here since the start or just found us in the past few weeks (sorry!). I am really happy that I was able to do this for the past few years.

If you want to replace LiB with another newsletter I won’t be offended (much). Have a look at what London Spy is doing; definitely subscribe to The Fence’s newsletter if you haven’t already; Vittles is essential reading if you ever eat food; and John Grindrod and Paul Wood are both doing exceptional things.

Here’s a quick poll. If you want to tell me anything else, the comments are open and you can always email me.

See you soon…