Why they unsubscribe

Not The Pillar Post

Happy Wednesday friends,

The other day we received a note from a now-former subscriber. 

I hope it goes without saying that we run a pretty tight ship here at The Pillar. Margins are narrow, and we count every single paying reader, in and out, because our readers are the only ones keeping us in business.

So when we get a note from someone explaining why they are leaving, we read it. Every time. 

Here’s what she said:

It’s pretty hard to feel bad about that. 

And the truth is, quite a few of the people who make the decision to stop being paid subscribers tell us similar stories. Like these two guys, for example:

If people are going to leave us as paying subscribers, doing it to answer a vocation from the Lord is about the best possible reason we could hope for, and they are — all of them — in our prayers.

And we want them to keep reading. 

The same goes for the people who tell us they’re canceling because of tough financial times for their families. We absolutely get it. 

We also understand when someone writes in, as they occasionally do, to tell us they need a break because they just don’t want to read about scandal or sin in the Church anymore — that even if they support our work, it’s too distressing for them to read. We get it.

There are some unsubscribers we don’t get, though.

Some people actually don’t want us to write about abuse, misconduct, scandal, or corruption at all, because they think giving voice to victims and demanding justice is just an attack on the Church.

Those people still exist, believe it or not.

We happen to think that it’s abusers and the corrupt who damage the Church, and that turning a blind eye to their actions “gives food” to those who hate it.

Giving real space to the pain and suffering of victims in the Church, holding out a light in the darker corners of our Catholic society and holding up a mirror to the Church’s failures in justice and charity are a big part of what we wanted The Pillar to be when we set it up three years ago.

If that’s a problem for some people, this isn’t the place for them. 

That said, I know it can be hard reading, sometimes. Believe me when I say it’s hard writing, too. It takes a toll, week in week out, covering the bleaker realities we need to confront if we want the Church to live up to her Divine calling. 

But not as much of a toll as it takes on the people directly affected by these things. People like the sisters JD spoke with earlier this month, who were preyed upon under the guise of “spiritual direction” and then watched as their predator walked off their complaints.

It’s important their stories be heard, because they deserve to be heard. But also because bringing a light to those dark places illuminates other corners, too. Like when we discovered in our follow-up reporting that the same priest had other complaints, too, and looks to have been hearing confessions even after his faculties were pulled by a local archdiocese.

We believe — The Pillar is founded on the belief —  that covering these stories, not for scandal sake but for justice and to work towards real lessons being learned, is the only way the Church can “move on.” 

We will stop telling the stories of victims when there are no more victims’ stories to tell. 

We’ll stop talking about the protection of rights, and due process, when rights are protected and due process is assured.

And we’ll stop reporting failures of justice in the Church when those who would abuse its institutions for their own benefit are all safely removed.

That may never happen, of course. Indeed, we live in an imperfect world and the Church is both Divine and human, so I don’t expect to ever be perfect, this side of eternity. So, we have work to do in the meantime.

We have work to do, too, in giving voice to the suffering Church in places which just don’t make the headlines as often as they should — not least our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, or Venezuela. 

And we have work to do tracking and unpacking what the hierarchy is doing and thinking across a range of issues, local and international. Whether it is how and why the USCCB polices the copyright on biblical translations in parishes or the state of the Vatican’s dealings with Beijing, we are working to stay across it and talk to the people at the heart of what’s going on.

While we work, we want everyone to be able to read what we are doing — because while The Pillar isn’t a charity we definitely consider it a service to the Church. 

That’s why it means so much to us that we keep The Pillar free to read, so that everyone — including our friends in convents and seminaries and monasteries — can be part of what we are trying to do.

We don’t lock anyone out of our news reporting and analysis with a paywall, and we never want to. 

It would, I’m sure, be good for business if we did, though — smart people who are good at business tell us so all the time. 

But we don’t do it. Because while The Pillar is a business, we aren’t in this to turn over as many bucks as we can, even if there are easier ways to pay our rent.

That’s why you’re getting this email on a Wednesday. I am hoping you — not “you all” but specifically you — feel the same way about what we’re trying to do here.

The Pillar is a project, a mutual endeavor, between us — JD and me — owning this thing, and the rest of the team here, Michelle and Luke and Edgar and Kate and Brendan, and all our other contributors. 

But we are only half of The Pillar. 

The other half are the readers who choose to become paying subscribers. The ones who choose to pay the $8 a month, not because of what it gets them (it gets you podcast bonus episodes and Starting Seven, Luke’s morning must-reads bulletin which is worth the money on its own), but because they believe in what we are trying to do here, and want to be a part of it and to keep it free for everyone else.

We get some unfriendly unsubs, too, from time to time. People who accuse us of being either “rightwing,” or “liberals,” or — and someone really wrote this to us — “caring more about being ‘serious journalists’ than taking a stand.”

All that is fine by us. We do want to do “serious journalism” and we don’t want anyone to think we’re on any side except the good of the Church. And we want those people to keep reading, too, after they cancel on us; in many cases we can see that they do. As free readers, quite a few of them are getting this email, in fact.

We don’t expect them to sign back up, though it would be nice if they did. 

And we don’t expect even close to 10% of the tens of thousands of free readers getting this email to become paying subscribers, either. But if they did it would superchange The Pillar in ways I can only dream about right now.

What I am hoping is that you — specifically you — will just give it 10 seconds of thought and ask yourself: Is The Pillar worth $8? 

You’ve been reading our work for a while now. Maybe you don’t agree with everything JD or I think on every topic. I don’t see how you could, we don’t agree with each other half the time. But you know how seriously we take what we do, and I hope you see the difference The Pillar is making.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that committed Catholic journalism has meant that bad actors are out of ministry, or even going to jail.

Most of all, I hope you think that’s a difference worth making, worth sustaining for the whole Church, and keeping free to read for the whole Church — including our friends in the monasteries and seminaries. 

I hope you will understand that we run a newsstand with an honesty box. We don’t lock anyone out of our work, we just ask those who can afford it to pay for the news they read. 

So, please, just take 10 seconds and ask yourself: Is The Pillar worth it?

If you think so, we need you out here with us. Let’s dance.

Thanks for taking the time, and see you Friday,

Ed. Condon
Editor
The Pillar