Happy Birthday, TBR!

Celebrating 2 Years on Substack

Mousse, getting into the spirit.

TBR is celebrating its first two years on Substack—and I want to thank you for making it possible.

After 11 years at The New Yorker, in March 2024 I started publishing The Borowitz Report on Substack, where it became an independent, reader-supported newsletter.

That meant no ads. No censorship. And no adult supervision.

And I wanted to address an issue that Donald Trump has repeatedly called a hoax: affordability.

During my years at The New Yorker, I knew that there were people who wanted to read my articles but couldn’t afford to subscribe to the magazine.

So when I moved to Substack, I decided to make every weekday post free. I’d rely on just one paid feature a week, on Sunday, to keep TBR solvent.

When the rebooted TBR went live on Substack, I held my breath, not knowing what to expect. Would this work?

Well, thanks to readers like you, The Borowitz Report now reaches people in more than 200 countries. That’s slightly more countries than Trump has bombed, and significantly more than he can pronounce.

And being independent has given me the freedom to offer you new features, such as long-form commentary, original reporting, and podcast interviews with everyone from Paul Krugman to Jane Goodall.

I’ve been honored to host a TBR book club where authors like Dave Barry, Joyce Vance, Robert Reich, and E. Jean Carroll have answered subscribers’ questions, to collaborate with the Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes after her work was censored by the Washington Post, and to showcase music from the brilliant Jesse Welles.

Best of all, TBR now has a comments section, where every day I get to interact with you and enjoy your humor, kindness, and wisdom. At a time when many of us feel alone, you’ve created something special: a community.

And today I’m excited to announce a new Sunday feature I’ll be rolling out for paid subscribers in the coming weeks: TBR Midterms HQ. I’ll be providing analysis of midterm races, plus election predictions you won’t find anywhere else. I can’t wait for you to read these posts.

One last thing, and I hope you’ll forgive me for ending on a serious note: two years ago, I didn’t dream that millions of American voters would be crazy enough to give Donald Trump another chance to mutilate the country. And I didn’t anticipate how eager corporate media would be to enable his uniquely incompetent brand of fascism.

As craven billionaires continue to degrade storied news outlets like the Washington Post and CBS News, I’ve never been more grateful that I don’t work for corporate media. I work for you.

Thank you for your support, which allows me to do the work I love. Over the past two years, I’ve written 649 posts for you. As long as you’re interested in what I have to say, I’ll keep at it.

Love,

Andy