Ike Saul is the founder of Tangle, an independent political newsletter that aims to tell you the news from both sides of the political spectrum. In a highly polarized world, Ike has taken advantage of the fact that lots of people want to hear more than one side to each political story. Tangle is now making over $3m according to their blogging platform, Ghost:
Keep reading for an exclusive interview with Ike Saul on how he created Tangle, how he has grown the newsletter and how he chose a freemium business model.
Can you tell us what Tangle is and why you created it?
I created Tangle in 2019 as a fully independent, nonpartisan media outlet focused on U.S. politics. At the start of my career, I worked at big outlets like Huffington Post and got to see the biases that pervade mainstream media up close. Story selection, slanted headlines, selective quotes, you name it — the examples of bias were everywhere.
I’m glad I had those experiences, but I also knew that doing that kind of work wasn’t why I went into journalism. I eventually made the jump to the startup world, helping Ashton Kutcher launch A-Plus, which was a positive news-oriented outlet. I was one of the founding editors there and found it to be a much more fulfilling experience, but as someone with a background in politics, I knew I eventually wanted to find my sweet spot.
I started Tangle toward the end of my time at A-Plus, building on an idea I had for a newsletter that would give readers an in-depth look at one big story each day and would leave them feeling informed about both the facts of the issue and what each side was saying about it.
Our core product is our newsletter, but we also launched a podcast, YouTube channel, and live events in recent years. I was entirely on my own at first, working a full-time job and writing Tangle before and after work. The first newsletter went out to 13 people, but the response was really positive right off the bat. About two years after that, I was making enough money from paid subscriptions to make Tangle my full-time job.
Our growth has really accelerated since then; I now have four full-time employees (plus a team of interns and volunteers), and our readership has grown to about 315,000. It’s a dream come true. I spent a decade in mainstream newsrooms having to constantly ward off anxiety about losing my job or not making enough to get by, so I’m extremely grateful to have my own company with a sustainable business model and a mission I truly believe in.
Why do you think liberals are out of touch with America?
I don’t know that liberals are out of touch with America, I think they just got beat. Tens of millions of Americans would still say that they are liberal or that the Democrats/liberals represent their views better than the other side.
But Donald Trump’s message resonated with more people, and I think he did a better job of convincing voters that his solutions to their biggest concerns (inflation, immigration, crime, foreign policy) were better than what the Democrats were offering.
The big challenge I see for the left going forward is finding a figurehead or figureheads who can speak to America plainly and is a way that doesn’t come off as focus group-tested or trying to appease all sides at once. Trump resonates because he’s real and engaging and has a great sense for the issues that most people care about.
The left isn’t in total disarray, but it needs to take a hard look at its “brand” and evolve the ways it is advocating for its core issues. A big part of that is going to be addressing the perception gap between what people think liberals stand for and what they actually do.
Can you tell us what you’ve achieved with Tangle?
The first real “oh shit moment” was when we hit 5,000 readers. That number just felt pretty “real” and proof that I was building something with legs. Soon after that, I polled that group of 5,000, and over 500 said they’d pay to support me (at the time, I was doing Tangle in addition to a full-time editor job, so my hope was that one day, I could make enough off Tangle to solely focus on that).
