It's been one year since 'Words & Money' soft launched at the 2025 London Book Fair. Founding editor Andrew Richard Albanese offers a status report.
I've just returned from an exhilarating week at the 2026 London Book Fair. Which means, incredibly, that Words & Money is one year old.
It was at the London Book Fair last year that my partner Erin Cox and I soft launched Words & Money, with a partial web design and vision. By the end of the fair, the feedback was so strong that Erin and I decided to speed up our timeline. We had been thinking we'd send our first newsletter by the end of June 2025. Instead, we pushed forward, and our first weekly newsletter went out six weeks after we returned from London, on April 25, 2025. And it has gone out every week since.
On the occasion of our first anniversary, I want to begin with my deep thanks to all of you, our readers and subscribers, our contributors and our partners, for your support, feedback and input, and for your patience.
One year later, we've made it a few steps toward our goal of moving public libraries to where we believe they deserve to be—at the center of the conversation about the reading, writing, and publishing enterprise—and there is much more to come.
Taking Stock
I'll start with this: in normal times under normal circumstances, starting a media site is hard work. In addition to the day-to-day editorial work, there's all that goes into the technology, design, delivery, and, of course, the business.
After the London Book Fair last year, Erin and I understood that by speeding up our timeline, we'd basically be building the road as we've traveled on it, and we were up for the challenge. But then something happened: and by something, I mean, well, the Trump administration.
What I honestly did not foresee was the sheer volume of events that were about to come screaming at us after our launch, such as the extra-legal attempts to shutter the IMLS and the Copyright Office, the firing of Carla Hayden, and the collapse of Baker & Taylor to name a few. And that's on top the news we actually expected to cover.
Hey, news happens. I get that. I've been reporting on publishers and libraries for decades. But as far as news goes, this year was decidedly not normal. And, I'll admit, it was a lot to keep up with in any year much less year one of a new site.
So, where are we today?
On Tap: More Feature Reporting
Where we'd initially envisioned focusing Words & Money with more longer form reporting, we very quickly found ourselves needing to stay on top of so many fast-moving stories at once, all coming in hot. So we necessarily pivoted to set Words & Money up to handle news in a way that works. Which I believe we have.
In the short term, that has meant that some of my longer form reporting has had to take a backseat for the time being. But as we enter our second year, we're now getting up to speed. And starting next week, we'll be moving ahead with more feature reporting, in addition to our usual weekly news.
More Contributors
We are also looking for writers. We've been so fortunate to have some great ones in year one. And we'd very much like to hear from anyone in the publishing and library communities who is interested in writing for us. We're looking for regular reporters and contributors, as well as columnists, essays, and opinion pieces. Please to reach out to me (andrew@wordsandmoney.com or Erin@wordsandmoney.com) if you're interested, send us pitch, or even just a general query. We're happy to talk. And, yes, we pay.
Our Website
We also hope to take better advantage of our website capabilities. While we really appreciate our current platform, Ghost, which, all in all, has been outstanding, we can already see that we are running up against some limitations, and we've begun plans for a custom site. With any luck, this will all happen with minimal disruption. Because, that's how technology works, right? Anyway, best case is that you won't see much of these changes, except perhaps in some new design and features at some point, but it's something that we are contending with as we grow, so in the name of transparency, I'll share.
Our Podcast and Premium Resources
Another major initiative: our podcast. It turns out it takes a lot of work to do a podcast, who knew? But we've now made some progress on that front, too, and we hope to make an announcement soon. Stay tuned!
We've also been working on some premium resources we also hope to roll out in the second half of 2026. Admittedly, those have been moving slowly while we've tended to the site, but we're making slow but steady progress.
Thank You, and Please Share the Word
At the one year mark, we are set up for the future. And we are grateful for your help in establishing Words & Money as an independent media venture that aims to properly center libraries in the 21st century reading, writing, and publishing enterprises.
If you're already a subscriber, we thank you, and we encourage you to please share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues and ask them to subscribe as well. And if you can, consider supporting us with a premium subscription for just $45 annually.
As we enter year two, we're set up we remain committed to our vision, and to a strong future for libraries and publishers, for readers and writers, and for democracy.
