Keeping Tabs #53: Substack etiquette and antique discoveries
A weekly dose of news, views and things I’ve learned
Happy new week. In Dubai, kids are back at school after a week of online learning amid missile attacks. It’s also seriously hotting up, as temperatures are set to hit 46 Celsius come Wednesday, apparently.
But I’m excited for this week because there are some fun community things coming up. I also might be interviewing Kris Fade tomorrow. Wish me luck, lol.
Let’s dive straight in…
Subscriber wins
I loved this interview by Common Good of personal finance guru Carol Glynn. Two legends. Nice one.
Bravo to Only in Dubai for the headline “The Devil wears Primark” in his latest post.
Please share your wins with me, whether you’re a free or paid subscriber, whether you’re near or far!
In other news…
The Desert Prose co-working day in Dubai is coming up on Thursday. Please DM me for more details if you want to join!
Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Anna Seaman, a veteran of the arts and culture scene in the Middle East. In case you missed it, here’s the Substack Live we recorded. I loved how candid Anna was about her rates and feeling - like so many of us do - unable to charge as much as she’s worth. I do apologise for the bad lighting on my side - also, Substack has done something very weird with my eyes in the edit.
As someone who rarely even takes weekends off these days (rare = never), I really needed to read this story about why freelancers struggle to take holidays and how to go about doing it (and why not doing so is riskier in the long run).
There’s a stat from an Edelman study that’s been doing the rounds on my social media this week - that 90% of brand citations come from earned media. Learn more in this carousel here, with takeaways from Meltwater Summit in NYC. Paid ads, own-brand content and social media posts accounted for the other 10%. I found it interesting, anyway.
Substack has launched a new video series called Open Tab (they clearly took inspo from Keeping Tabs). Co-founder Hamish McKenzie interviews media founders at a bar of their choice (with an open tab), starting with Emily Sundberg of Feed Me fame. I enjoyed the first episode, although found her to be a little name-droppy. I just wonder how US/Western-centric this series is going to be overall. I’ll be keeping an eye on it.
While we’re on the subject of Substack, I also enjoyed this conversation with Carole Radziwill and Jalil Johnson for Vogue on platform etiquette. I agreed with most points, although I don’t think it’s “terribly uncouth” to ask someone why they unsubscribed. I’ve done it because I want to learn what’s working and what’s not for the community - especially if I think someone who’s my ideal audience unsubscribes. I also offer free subscriptions to anyone who’s struggling financially, so in case that is the case, I want to make sure they know that (although I wouldn’t presume it to be the case unless they mentioned it first!).
Anyway, one of the quotes that made me giggle and nod in agreement:
“Oh my God, that’s like crazy. You can’t unsubscribe from a close friend. If a close friend of mine unsubscribed to my Substack and didn't tell me, that’s friendship ending! Don't unsubscribe to my Substack. Those are fighting words.”
It was interesting to see ITP Media Group has launched Law UK, a sister title to Law Middle East, although we did know they were looking at a few UK launches after Holly Sands posted on LinkedIn a few jobs would be up for grabs. It seems that, after a brief spurt of international titles launching in our neck of the woods, local titles are now looking for international opportunities (also following FACT’s launch in Singapore).
Meanwhile, as per Press Gazette, only three newsbrands grew in traffic in April - two Indian sites (Rediff and NDTV) and US business and tech title Forbes. Daily Mail and Al Jazeera experienced some of the biggest drops in traffic. Also, 9 sites saw traffic grow year on year in April, including (you possibly guessed it), Substack, which ranked just behind Al Jazeera (which, despite the monthly drop, still recorded the strongest growth year on year among the top 50 sites, up 257%).
Dubai International Writers’ Centre and Emirates Literature Foundation has released its programming (curated by Nivea Serrao) for this month. It includes an online workshop on May 16th on how to self-edit your novel with professional editor Flora Rees (book here); on the same day, a free community poetry evening as four artists share their work, followed by an open mic session (book your seat here); and another online workshop on how to design a book cover with art director Mohammed A Aljebouri on May 22nd (book here).
Finally, I recently stumbled across one of the coolest places I’ve ever come across - the Antiques Museum in Al Quoz.
A view of one tiny corner of this mammoth “museum”. Pic by me I’m very late to the party, since it opened in like 1994, but I’d never seen it before. I spotted it from the road as I was driving past and had to check it out. It’s pretty much my heaven - a gigantic, labyrinthine space filled from floor to ceiling with handicrafts and antiques. (There’s a lot of tack, but that’s part of the charm.) I didn’t have much time to explore but I shall be clearing a few hours from my schedule one day to do so. You’re welcome.
Thanks for the mention! See you Thursday :)