The end of a season, the end of our era

This is going to be my last issue of The Bandwagon. That aspect is undeniably bittersweet and I’ll ramble about my mixed feelings in a minute, but the reason is a good one: I got a full time job.

It’s a job I’m really excited about; one that makes the ordeal of the past two years seem not worth it by any stretch of the imagination, but more propulsive than it seemed at times. It turns out, I wasn’t standing still. Even though I felt stuck, I was moving towards the next phase in my career. I feel really confident about what I want that to be and really fortunate to be given the opportunity to do it. The new job is also writing about sports, and so (understandably) they do not also want me writing about sports here.

But this isn’t about that job. This is about this. The newsletter that is named after the podcast we had, that grew out of the video series that was my favorite thing I’ve done professionally (so far). A name that I wear on a solid gold necklace that I haven’t taken off in years. This project allowed me to continue to be coworkers with Zach, who was maybe like the third person I texted about the job news and whom I will probably continue to text all my sports thoughts to because that’s how I find out if they’re smart or not.

I have wanted a full time job since I got laid off. I’m ill-suited temperamentally to freelancing for reasons that you don’t need to care about. I’m even more ill-suited to striking out on my own for some of the same reasons and also because striking out on your own is not how journalism should work. It’s amazing that some people are successful that way, but they shouldn’t have to be. And yet, part of me wishes that I was different in ways that made this venture more viable. Because I love what we wanted it to be and what it sometimes was.

Okay, enough of the self-indulgent stuff. What does this mean for you? Firstly, we are pausing paid subscriptions indefinitely. That means that if you paid by the month, you will no longer be charged. This part is suboptimal but if you made an annual commitment and feel like you are no longer getting your money’s worth, reach out to hellobandwagon@gmail.com and we will refund you. Please don’t feel awkward if you do so. I feel awkward that we’re in this position, which I’ve known was a possibility for a while but, for obvious reasons, couldn’t tell people to stop subscribing.

Zach will write soon with plans for the newsletter and I think I can probably get away with an occasional drop-in appearance. But, broadly speaking, this is the end of The Bandwagon as you’ve known it.

We got really fortunate with the timing of this all. I’m glad we got to go out writing about an incredible World Series. I hope that makes this feel like a more natural conclusion on your end.

As for me, I’ll announce the new job soon. I hope you’ll read my work there. I also have a very infrequent newsletter about parenting and feelings that you can subscribe to here, but I understand that’s not everyone’s jam. You can follow me on Bluesky or Instagram or TikTok.

Thank you, sincerely, for being on The Bandwagon. It’s been a blast.