Now it can be told: Best Evidence has a new home! As you know, we’ve felt for some weeks now that Substack is no longer the right place for our newsletter. Not sure what we mean? This WaPo piece on Platformer’s recent departure should give you the gist, but the short version is, Substack has stated that it will continue to amplify, recommend, and monetize pro-Nazi content, so, ethically, it’s not a company we can continue to do business with.
But as it turns out, this is awesome for us, because we’ve got new digs — with a legend.
Starting Monday January 22, you can find us at reality blurred!
Our talented and generous colleague, Andy Dehnart, has made room for us at his hall-of-fame reality-TV site, reality blurred. Our shingle — dark red, so you know it’s us! — is right here. Starting Friday night, bestevidence.fyi will also send you straight to our page.
You’ve seen Andy’s contributions in the comments and our year-end lookbacks; reality blurred, which has been in operation since 2000 (not a typo) is rad, and we are thrilled to partner with a titan in the critical genre who treats reality television the same way we approach true crime, taking it seriously and demanding it do better. We can’t thank Andy enough for proposing this solution, which is Nazi-free and happier all around!
We’re also moving the email/archive infrastructure to another newsletter platform, called Buttondown, not long after you read this. That should be a relatively seamless transition, but we’ve put together a briefish FAQ to help with that and any other questions. Of course, if you have any other questions, hit the comments, or email us: editorial at bestevidence dot fyi!
Thank you all so, so much for reading since we launched (ulp) almost five years ago; we’ll see you at the new place! — SDB and EB
Can Andy tell us what to do? He’s not our real dad! // He sure can, so act right in the comments. …Jokes aside: we’re partners in this, and Andy doesn’t want us to change anything we do because he likes us just the way we are.
It looks like reality blurred is all/only TV; are you still covering true crime in other media? // We sure are! You’ll still get podcast/book reviews and so on.
Okay, fr though: what happens to my subscription? // We are somewhat new to Buttondown as well, but this should be seamless: your email addy will just move over to the new “host” and you shouldn’t have to do anything. This is set to happen this evening (January 19).
Our emails will look a bit different going forward, but you should receive them as usual. We’ll talk more about supporting us in a moment, but one fantastic change will be that when you click through to read our work on the website (as opposed to reading from your inbox, as you have in the past), you’ll be incrementally supporting our work (assuming your ad blocker is turned off). Thanks in advance for that!
I’m a paid supporter, what changes for me? // We completely understand if these changes spur you to put a pause on your annual or monthly support of our work! Here’s how to cancel your paid subscription on the Substack platform; it’s the same link we’ve been including at the header and footer of our emails this week.
When we move to Buttondown this weekend, our Stripe account — which manages your payment information — will move with us. So if you want to keep things as-is, there’s no extra work on your end; and our gratitude to you will increase fourfold.
Will there still be extras for paid supporters? // All subscribers will be notified every time we publish a new item on reality blurred; long-term, we hope to build bonus content back in for folks who provide us with monthly or annual paid support.
What happens to the B.E. archives? // We’re not removing them from our old Substack pages for the time being. Eventually, we hope to bring those over to reality blurred, but that’s on the back burner for now. We’ll keep you posted about that.
Buttondown doesn’t have comments! // We’re told they’re adding that functionality, possibly as soon as end of the month. You can comment on reality blurred, and we hope you do! Hearing from you folks can be the best parts of our day. (PS thanks to all of you who’ve weighed in on this process! It's been a huge help.)
Do you plan to do discussion threads and The Docket and whatnot at the new place? // In the immediate future, probably a no on discussion threads. But we're always hoping our items/reviews prompt discussion, no matter the format — we hope you’ll use those as jumping off points for conversations in the comments! The Docket, yes: we’re planning to restart that bad boy after we get settled, though it might be a few weeks.
Is anything else changing, like your socials? // Nope! We’re still the same on Bluesky (bestevidencefyi.bsky.social); we’re still the same on Instagram; we still love getting your calls/texts on the Best Evidence tip line, 919-75-CRIME; and we still think you’re the best readership going. And now you have a new way to follow us, if you use an RSS reader: we’re at https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/tags/best-evidence/feed/
Thank you for sticking with us as we make these changes — like ducks, we’ve been paddling madly beneath the pond’s surface these last few weeks, even as we’ve tried to remain stoic and afloat. We’re really excited to start this new chapter in our little publication, and can’t wait for you to join us over at reality blurred. — Sarah and Eve