Starting today we’re shifting the newsletter system from running on Mailchimp to running on Substack and the new, direct address can be found here: newsletter.hudin.com
There are many reasons to do this as it’s fact that in terms of alternatives, social media is dying and simply isn’t a good way for a publication to get news out. While we’ve ceased all social media engagement on Twitter, we’ll soon stop promoting articles altogether given that there’s a point of diminishing returns which is quickly being reached.
The newsletter has long-been a great, unfiltered way to reach readers. But when weighing newsletter systems against one another, Mailchimp is constantly getting clunkier and always shows that it’s a system built in a pre-smartphone era. Substack on the other hand is a great option for newsletters with something of a “community” system that allows others to find you. Also, in terms of writing, it “just works”.
Another key part of the change is that a subscriber asked a few weeks ago, “So, where’s the archive of newsletters?” and the truth is, this isn’t very easy or nice looking in Mailchimp. In Substack, everything is all there and ready to read going back all four years since starting the newsletter in mid-2019, newsletter.hudin.com/archive, so this is a huge benefit in case you find that you’ve missed an update along the way or it went to your spam folder in email–you can also use the Substack app if so-minded.
In addition to the newsletter changing systems, we’re also going to start running the Cul de Cuvée exclusively on the new Substack system as honestly it just feels like the proper spiritual home for this type of column. Thus, another reason to get on the Substack if you’d like to keep up with “bluntly-curated bits from the world of drink”.
Substack has gotten popular as many journalists are using it to start up paid subscriptions to their writing work. That’s great for the people it works for, but given that Substack doesn’t have a function to handle thousands of tastings notes, grape variety, and regional profiles, it doesn’t make sense for this site and thus subscriptions will be staying right here, at the same price: www.hudin.com/subscribe
Given this, we need to emphasize that the newsletter will most definitely remain a free newsletter.
No transition is without its bumps however and this change required that we export out the two main mailing lists for the site and merge them into one single Substack. So, some of you might be seeing a note about this twice today. Advance apologies for that, but please unsubscribe from whichever one you don’t want, or just wait to see which one is the one that suits you better, either the WordPress immediate mailing or the Substack that’s more or less bi-monthly.
However you decide to keep up with Hudin.com, we hope you’ll enjoy this change and as always, please let us know if you have any problems as we very much enjoy all the readers we have!
