One Year Of The Polymerist
Happy Birthday To Us
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I published the first issue of this newsletter Sept 28th 2020. It’s been fun, grueling, rewarding, and maddening. What I’ve been most surprised about has been the quality and quantity of the people who have signed up to get emails from me twice a week. The Polymerist’s audience is comprised of the following people:
Industrial Chemists, Scientists, and Engineers
Academic Chemists, Scientists, and Engineers
Finance Professionals: Hedge Funds, Venture Capitalists, and Private Equity
Students: High School, Undergraduate, and Graduate
Chemical and Biotech Startup Founders
Commercial Chemical Industry Professionals
Chemical Industry Recruiters
My Family and Friends
Professionals in Related Industries: Textiles, Composting, and Recycling
Regular People Interested In Chemistry
I’m astounded by the quality of responses I get either in the comments or as emails. I’ve had reader suggest excellent resources, give insights I hadn’t thought about, and I’ve been learning more than I could have ever dreamed since before I started this newsletter as an experiment. I’ve been able to network with readers, talk polymer chemistry, and learn new things.
I primarily started this newsletter and an experiment to see if I could write what I wanted to read. I’ve always told myself that if there were beat reporters covering chemicals and industrial polymers at the New York Times and Wall Street Journal that I considered to be really good then I would probably stop. Well, those reporters don’t exist…yet (not saying I want to be a full time reporter, but I wouldn’t be against some freelance work here and there).
The results of my experiment are that I’m approaching what I would gladly pay $50/year to get in my own inbox. I would like to eventually make money from this because I’ve got expenses too and a college fund for a kid that I need to grow. And as I wrote earlier, salaries for professional chemists have been flat since before I was born, but almost all assets have increased in value (or inflated).
I’m trying to work on some more in-depth stories where I’ve interviewed people (aka original reporting). I’m taking a week off to work on trying to produce higher quality content. And I might not post as regularly on Tuesdays as I have in the past going forward, but I’ll try.
I appreciate this audience and I’ll continue with this experiment.
In the meantime here is my reading list:
Chemjobber’s Bench and Cubicle
Adhesives and Sealants Magazine
American Chemistry Council’s SmartBrief email.
If you’ve got any suggestions leave them in the comments.
Congratulations Tony, I always find your newsletter to be an interesting read.