well lol i finally got laid off...but on the bright side.......

Deez Links is coming BACK.

Well well well well well well they finally got me! After three years at Vanity Fair, I’ve been laid off from my job as part of the wider cuts and union negotiations at Condé Nast that you’ve been hearing about since November.

I’m crushed, of course. Vanity Fair was a real-life fantasy, where I got to work with the loveliest people in the biz—shoutout to Matt Lynch and Maggie Coughlan, my editors and mentors—and to have amazing conversations with the most interesting people on the planet. Thankfully, the work of the Condé Nast Union not only landed a dignified contract for those continuing at the company and severance for the rest of us, but the last five months of bargaining also bought me a lot of precious time for emergency planning, spiralling/dicking around (in case you were wondering what Hate Reads was really all about) and thinking about what I want to try next.

What does this mean for Deez Links? Oh, you know we’re so back. And finally, eight years in, we’re gonna do it. We’re launching paid subscriptions and seeing if we can actually make a living off this insane little passion project. Ughhhhhh oh god okay here it comes…….

My pitch to you:

Deez Links will run 2-3x/week, delivering yummy very finishable dispatches of the media/culture links + commentary you know and love—for $7/month or $70/year. You can sign up or upgrade your subscription here:

If you’re a paid subscriber, you get every newsletter straight to the inbox, plus archives access/commenting privileges etc. Plus, you’ll get to access Hate Read Season 2… more on that below… 

If you’re a serious Patron of Deez Arts (P.O.D.A status) who subscribes at the founding tier of $200/year, you get a personal shout-out in a newsletter + one free classified ad (as long as it’s not weird/racist/I mean you know) when we get the Deez Classifieds section up and running.  

Me Doing Some Math:

There’s more than 19,000 of you reading this right now; if 1,010 of you can support Deez Links via a paid subscription, I could literally pay for rent and healthcare for the year. The American dream!

But……if we can get 2,000 subscribers or more…..dude. First of all, I’d uh stop panicking tonight, and then I’d get to work putting Hate Read Season 2 together. We could pay all the S1 writers and get another round out for this summer. And I think we could do some other really fun shit, too — maybe a Deez Links Book Club? A podcast? More essays and interviews??

Archival photograph of 23-year-old me editing Deez Links in the back of an Uber in 2016 in what she thought was the height of glamour….let’s bring her back

All of this is to say: Deez Links 2.0, no matter what tier you’re subscribing at, will be bigger and better. We’re a couple of lightyears away from the ol’ 2016 media and cultural landscape (not to mention the personal Delia landscape), and I’ve noticed that day-to-day media stuff isn’t nearly as interesting to me as the more existential questions pertaining to culture, discourse, and what I’m sort of terming for myself as “these overly online conditions of modern life.” (Like have you READ the last year or so of these Deez Links dispatches? I think it’s clear to all of us somebody was going through it…). 

Questions Comments Concerns…

• If you’re a student, or media worker who’s also been laid off, or just someone who just simply cannot swing a subscription right now, literally just respond to this email and say hi. No questions asked.
  

• Alternately… if you’ve got an expense card and you see that Founding P.O.D.A status…you know what to do : )
  

Closing arguments, your honor

Last winter, I was reading Filterworld, the newish Kyle Chayka joint and taking in the joyfulness and creativity of DIY projects like Tyler Bainbridge’s newsletter-turned-Myspace-y social media network, Perfectly Imperfect. (Not to mention the arrival of great new independent outlets like Defector, The Drift, The Drunken Canal/Byline — so interesting that so many cool successful ones all start with “D”….hmmmmmmm…….) 

I’ve been thinking about the enduring, perhaps increasing currency of personal recommendations (practically artisanal craft now if you think about it!) as well as the value of connoisseurship and curation in a culture where unthinking automation has left us feeling drowned in a deluge of content. 

I suspect that’s the core appeal of all the influencers and online personas and self-made critics and podcasters and tastemakers who now steer so much of the conversation—like travelers plunked down in a chaotic new land, we still need someone real and sincere to take our hand and show us the actual good stuff. (And to throw the occasional actual IRL party, too.)

the newsletter writer now at age 31……the things she’s seen…..the links she’s lunked….

I would love for Deez Links to do that for you. If you’ve been here since the olden Deez days, I just want to say thank you for always believing in me; I can’t wait to show you what I have planned. And if you’re new, I hope you’ll consider this newsletter and my services as a new comrade-in-arms for navigating both this crazy online culture and online life. Shall we make it official here @ deezlinks.com?

More soon after Memorial Day. xoxoxo delia