Welcome to Best Evidence, a direct-to-your-inbox publication from your friends at The Blotter and The Blotter Presents, a website and podcast that were devoted to the analysis, critique, and review of true-crime properties across audio, video, and text.

As you of course know, the true-crime genre has exploded since The Blotter podcast launched back in 2011. Kids, ask your parents -- back then, to scratch our itch we often had to resort to pulp paperbacks and episodes of America’s Most Wanted. It was a tough time, but we prevailed.

A decade later, we’re confronted with an embarrassment of riches. Fans of true crime can scroll until their fingers cramp down Netflix’s streaming options, read well-researched purple-proseless books on serial slayings and Silicon Valley scandals, and drive coast to coast without even making a dent in the current bounty of true-crime podcasts.

That’s why we launched Best Evidence. Now, more than ever, you need a guide to what true crime is worth your time — and that’s what we’re here to do.

Every weekday, subscribers receive an email newsletter filled with original analysis and reporting as well as a curated look at the latest news in the true crime genre. Sometimes that’s a discussion thread or a podcast episode…and sometimes it’s free (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays currently)!

But paid subscribers get way more. For $5 per month, or $55 per year, you’ll receive every issue, as well as full access to our archives. Paid subscribers are the only ones allowed to comment on every issue and participate in every discussion thread, and the only ones who’ll receive bonus content including reviews long-form reviews, interviews, and more.

Best Evidence is solely supported by subscribers (though, if you’d like to purchase advertising in Best Evidence, please get in touch at editorial@bestevidence.fyi), so — not to put too fine a point on it — it can only exist if people pay to subscribe. Please consider signing up to do so today.

If you have any questions, feedback, or more, please do drop us a line at editorial@bestevidence.fyi.

So who’s writing this thing?

Editor-in-chief: Sarah D. Bunting

Sarah founded The Blotter in 2011 and was the host of its flagship podcast, The Blotter Presents. She was a cofounder of the seminal television critique site Television Without Pity. She’s also a co-host of podcasts including Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs, Extra Hot Great, and Again With This: Beverly Hills, 90210 & Melrose Place.

Publisher: Eve Batey

Eve Batey is a co-founding writer at SFist.com, a former Deputy Managing Editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and has been yelled at by spokespeople from at least eight police departments and three regional FBI offices. She’s been writing about crime at the local, state, and national level since 2004, and has planned how to rob every bank she’s ever entered.


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The true crime that's worth your time.

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