Tangle was founded in 2019 as an independent, reader-funded newsletter with a mission to get readers of all political backgrounds out of their news bubbles and engaged with a diverse set of perspectives on the biggest issues in U.S. politics. Core to that work is connecting with our audience on a variety of platforms and adapting our content to suit different news formats — from email, to video, to audio, to social media.
Over the past year, we’ve set out to expand Tangle’s offerings in new and innovative ways beyond the core newsletter product. Our goal has been to grow Tangle into a true media company, developing new content that amplifies our work and introduces us to new audiences, all while staying true to our mission of nonpartisan journalism that seeks to inform and spark constructive debate.
Accordingly, we set four goals for the year:
Collectively, these were an ambitious set of goals, but we identified each as a key area to grow the company and bring our unique coverage approach to new audiences.
Tangle has always prioritized connecting with readers, but this past year we took it a step further, leveraging reader input to craft exclusive content based on their questions. We’ve significantly expanded our original reporting in these editions, including issues on organizational troubles within the Secret Service, a deep look into Project 2025, interviews with experts on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and original essays on our most requested topics. We solicited questions for these pieces from readers and used their queries to shape the outline of each piece to deliver maximum appeal to our subscribers. This approach proved challenging at times — we had to find a balance between incorporating reader feedback while keeping our coverage focused on key issues — but it set us apart from both major media outlets and other independent sites, and saw an enormous positive response.
In launching our YouTube channel, we set out to create original content separate from our newsletter offerings. With a team of just five full-time employees, this was a massive undertaking that required creative and technical input from everyone. As a team, we pitched ideas, scripted videos, conducted interviews, and assisted in the editing bay to establish a regular cadence of video content featuring topics amplifying the mission of Tangle, such as ideas to fix presidential debates, interviews with people behind under-the-radar political movements, moderated debates with experts, and on-the-ground reporting on animating issues like the college campus protests.
We also launched our first original podcast series, “The Undecideds.” In this show, we track five undecided voters, interviewing each of them once a month in the lead-up to the 2024 election. In producing the show, we conducted over 200 initial interviews with potential subjects (all from the Tangle community), then a second round of in-depth interviews with our finalists. Our team then scripted each episode, interviewed each subject, and produced monthly episodes. This work has been challenging, requiring us to adapt in real-time to shifting dynamics in the presidential race and build a rapport with each interviewee so they are comfortable sharing their candid views on the race. But the show is not only our first original series — it’s also a concept we haven’t seen replicated in other media outlets, and one that brings the big, unwieldy themes of a presidential race to a deeply human level.
Finally, we planned and executed two in-person events in the past year. Both events focused on political topics — controversial Supreme Court rulings and the 2024 election — and featured prominent commentators from across the political spectrum in discussions moderated by our founder, Isaac Saul. In-person programming was a completely new area for us, and we had to navigate hurdles like booking venues, securing sponsors, selling tickets, and managing our featured guests. We took the lessons learned from the first event (in Philadelphia) and applied them to our second (in New York City), which was held at a larger venue with speakers flown in from across the country.
The newsletter reached 100,000 subscribers in April and 125,000 subscribers in August. In July, we also passed $1 million in annual recurring revenue, which is earned exclusively from subscribers (we do not accept outside investment), underscoring how Tangle has built a sustainable model for modern media companies with a focus on audience engagement and building trust. We also maintain some of the industry’s best engagement rates, with 67% of subscribers engaging during an average week and 81% over an average month.
Our YouTube channel also surpassed our goal of 10,000 subscribers, and we’ve published 51 original videos to date, many of which have amassed tens of thousands of views. It's also allowed us to grow into original, in-depth content exclusive to a visual medium.
We’re five episodes into our original series “The Undecideds,” with five more planned between now and November. The show has been one of the most popular pieces of content we’ve created to date, with thousands of listeners for each episode and consistently positive feedback from our audience on the scope and focus of the show. We’ve also developed a process for producing these original series that we plan to replicate in the coming year.
Both in-person events were successful, but we learned and adapted from the first to the second, selling out a 175-person venue while incorporating merchandise sales and recruiting three of the most prominent political commentators in the U.S. for our panel. We will continue the live event series in 2025.
