As you may recall from Monday’s newsletter, The Food Section is on the brink of ending this year in the red. To offset our $5,000 shortfall, we set a weeklong goal of acquiring 50 new paying subscribers.
Our drive yielded just one paid subscription.
That’s entirely understandable, considering how much other spending is required around the holidays. Plus, it took us 11 months to dig this hole, so it was probably foolhardy to think we could plug it in a matter of days.
Still, we’re keen to enter our fifth anniversary year in good financial standing. With our publication’s future at stake, it’s not enough to just cross our fingers and hope the situation improves: We must act now to avert a crisis later.
Consequently, we’re planning to scale back production during January. We’ll continue to put out a newsletter every weekday, but only the Monday edition—dedicated to in-depth feature reporting from across the American South—will showcase new material. Otherwise, we’ll do what home cooks around here have always done during the coldest month of the year: We’ll reach for what we put up in sunnier times, reprinting stories which were stored away for inevitable moments of scarcity.
Fortunately, these stories haven’t lost any of their luster while sitting on the shelf. In fact, savoring them a second time feels like a fitting way to kick off our wooden anniversary.
We’ve sorted the selections into three categories, each of which represents one component of a memorable meal. It’s up to you whether you’ll receive stories devoted to Compelling Characters, Distinctive Dishes, or Lively Conversation starters. Just click the button below to register your preference; even nonpaying readers are eligible to sign up.
(If you don’t choose one of the three weekday options, you’ll only receive the newsletter on Mondays in January.)
For most readers, the republished stories will register as new. A very tiny percentage of our audience has been with TFS from the start, with the majority of paying subscribers having joined us within the last 2-3 years. Still, we recognize austerity measures are never popular; please know your patience and understanding are deeply appreciated.
Our annual holiday break begins tomorrow. Then, we’ll return to your inbox on Monday, January 5, with TFS resuming its regular publication pace on February 2. If all goes as planned, this slowdown will be a one-time endeavor, and a distant memory once the year gets underway in earnest.
But before this year is out, I want to wish you the happiest of holidays, whichever and however you choose to celebrate. Here’s to a rewarding and restorative season: We’ll see you in 2026!
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