We’re not big fans of navel-gazing, but like our good friends at Lawfare, we’ve seen a pretty sharp rise in the more quantifiable ways of tracking our impact and our readership over the past weeks and months. In the past two weeks, we set a new record with close to 900,000 page views in a fourteen-day span. That number does not include readers who access our content through our media partners. For example, we partnered with Foreign Policy and Newsweek in co-publishing and republishing Just Security articles, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of additional page views for those pieces on our partners’ media platforms during the same time period. [Update: Since early March, we have also established a partnership with The Atlantic to republish select pieces.] Finally, news media references to our articles for Jan-Feb 1 include the following outlets (and authors of the respective Just Security article):
Agence France Press (Andy Wright); Associated Press (Adam Cox); The Atlantic (Robert Litt); The Atlantic (Jameel Jaffer); The Atlantic (Steve Vladeck); Bloomberg (Marty Lederman); CBS (David Cole); CNN (David Cole); Foreign Policy (Oona Hathaway and Sarah Weiner); The Guardian (Oona Hathaway and Sarah Weiner); The Guardian (Beth Van Schaack); The Hill (Steve Vladeck); Huffington Post (Steve Vladeck); The Intercept (Jake Laperruque); The Intercept (Steve Vladeck); New Republic (Marty Lederman); New York Times (Ryan Goodman); New York Times (James Hathaway); New York Times (Marty Lederman); New York Times (Steve Vladeck); Politico (Kate Brannen); Quartz (David Cole); Quartz (David Cole-2); Rolling Stone (David Cole); Rolling Stone (David Cole-2); Rolling Stone (Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Huq); Rolling Stone (Rick Hills); Rolling Stone (Jay Shooster); Reuters (Steve Vladeck); Slate (Kate Brannen); Slate (David Cole); Slate (David Cole-2); Slate (Jay Shooster); Vox (Marty Lederman); Washington Post (Adam Cox); Washington Post (David Cole); Washington Post (Marty Lederman); Washington Post (Kate Brannen); Washington Post (Jay Shooster); Washington Post (Nelson Tebbe, Richard Schragger, and Micah Schwartzman).
The reason for the uptick in our readership and media recognition is, we suspect, rather obvious–having everything to do with the felt (and very real) need for sober, thoughtful analyses of the litany of law and policy questions raised by the new Administration. (Check out, for example, our new page that includes all our coverage of the immigration and refugee Executive Order.) Our business model is special and allows us to deliver independent, expert commentary: We are a non-profit, free of any advertising, with a board of editors and guest authors who volunteer their writing, and a slender but fantastic editorial staff. While we’re energized about this increasing visibility and the effect of our work, we’re here to ask you, the readers, for more–to help us continue to sustain (and, we hope, grow) this enterprise.
How can you do that? We have three ideas:
- Promote us! Like and follow us on Facebook; follow us on Twitter; and, even better, tell your colleagues, friends (and, even better, your enemies) to do the same. The more visible our output is, the more we can attract the kind of content that will make such visibility worthwhile;
- Send us feedback! What do you especially like about our coverage? What (besides cowbell) would you like to see more of? We want to hear from you!; and
- Donate! If you have the means, consider a tax-deductible donation to Just Security–to help us hire more staff; better promote our existing (and future) work; and continue to improve our web and social media presences. Every little bit helps–both directly and indirectly. And Steve will give you a big hug the next time you see him.
When we launched Just Security in September 2013, the two of us wrote that “We hope to become a ready resource for decision-makers, analysts, and practitioners who address difficult U.S. national security law issues, and an invaluable reference for those simply trying to stay abreast of the daily developments in this ever-moving field.” Staying abreast of developments has increasingly come to resemble drinking from a fire-hose–which is exactly why now, more than ever, it’s so imperative that we do so. If you find our efforts worthwhile, please take a moment to consider how you might help.