On writing on the internet in 2025

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A take I haven’t written elsewhere

On writing on the internet in 2025

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Earlier this week, a new-to-me writer pitched me at CT, and I had to decline her pitch. It wasn’t a bad pitch. I just happen to be swamped with drafts, and outside of some extremely urgent news cycle calling for a specialist opinion, I can’t take on new writers any time soon.

But after the pitch talk proper, she asked if I had any advice on writing, and it got me thinking about the state of writing on the internet in 2025. Some of what follows is, I think, pretty broadly true, and some of it is my own opinion and orneriness.

1. It is easier than ever to write for public consumption. Substack is very much part of this, but there are many options: other newsletter services, Medium, even old-fashioned blogging. Long gone are the days when you had to know a modicum of HTML and CSS to do nice layouts in your posts. It’s all very plug and play, and any fool can self-publish.

2. It is not easier than ever to write on a good cadence at a good outlet with a good editor and good pay and good readership. On the scale of decades, yes, the internet has been a democratizing force for writers. In 1960 or 1990, it would’ve been far more difficult for me to cobble together a writing career from such hinterlands as the Twin Cities and Pittsburgh. All the outlets and organizations with which I’ve had long-term work have been based in New York, Chicago, or Washington, and it is very handy to avoid living in those cities while availing myself of their journalism opportunities.

But on the scale of the last 10 or 15 years, it does feel—as my correspondent observed—as if solid writing arrangements may be fewer as outlets shutter and journalism jobs continue to disappear. People who used to be staff are now freelance, which means the freelance market is tighter. Pitches are in endless supply, so many outlets can get away with paying too little and do. The writer emailing me said she couldn’t seem to make the jump from occasional freelancer to routine contributor anywhere. That’s not surprising given the state of the industry.

3. Every editor I know is overwhelmed with pitches. Certainly I am. Many of the pitches are mediocre, many outright unsalvageable. But some of them are not, and many of them come recommended from people I know, and that mix of hope and connection and a sense of duty to give people climbing the ladder behind me a reasonably fair chance means I devote far, far, far too much of my life to reading emails about articles I will never commission.

And all the editors with whom I’ve discussed this are in exactly the same position! So many people email us, so often, and we feel bad ignoring or declining but have to do it every day if we want any chance of working tolerable hours and giving our established writers’ work the time and care it deserves.

4. Frankly, I think way too many people are writing. In my professional opinion, 1 + 3 = 4. Or 1 + 4 = 3? Whatever. Too much writing. I say this for two reasons: