Big Technology Is Going Paid With Deeper Coverage and New Features

This newsletter is growing and expanding. Sign up for new paid subscriber benefits and enhanced coverage, including The Panel, Big Tech War Stories podcast, and a new Amazon column by Kristi Coulter.

Three years ago, I founded Big Technology with a dream that independent tech reporting might find an audience. My hope was that tech journalism outside the big newsrooms could challenge narratives, look where others weren’t, and take swings others wouldn’t. Being nimble, a bit like a startup, might help me take on the incumbents. It seemed worth trying.

Today, the experiment is clearly working. Readers like you have built Big Technology into a community of 145,000+ people, with subscribers from nearly every country on earth. And over time, Big Technology’s developed three strengths, all bolstered by its independence. 

This newsletter’s at its best when it’s: 1) Delivering timely news and insights without a middleman, 2) Sharing deep, unafraid reporting on powerful tech companies, and 3) Busting lazy narratives. That’s looked like a story on ChatGPT’s importance the day it went live (while most others ignored it), a deep report into Google’s struggles with Anthropic (while others glossed over it), and lots of narrative busting, including a full dissection of Uber’s latest PR campaign. 

So today, I’m thrilled to announce Big Technology is launching a paid tier to build on these strengths and offer more. I want to give you deeper knowledge, more expertise, and timely analysis when you need it most. When I get this right, the information and context helps you view unfolding news and events with real clarity. In an industry where a slight information advantage can give you an edge over your competitors, and supercharge your company and career, I want to deliver more.

As a launch special, I’m offering the full year for $90, which is 25% off the standard $120.

The core of Big Technology will remain the same. I will continue to publish timely news stories and paid members will have access to all of them. And if you’ve been following along and feeling like this is good value, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Free subscribers will continue to receive 2-3 stories per month. Whatever you decide, I can’t thank you enough for being here. I feel so lucky to be able to write and report for you. Thank you for being part of this.

Now, here’s what you’ll get in our new tier: 

Timely News and Insights + Exclusive Expertise: Introducing The Panel

Let’s start with The Panel, the first big new feature debuting today. When BIG news breaks – think Silicon Valley Bank’s failure, Meta launching Threads, or Instacart going public — I’m going to ask an influential group of technologists, analysts, journalists, and VCs to weigh in. Together, their timely responses will help you read where a situation is going extremely early. When there’s breaking news, I’m going to have exactly the right people give exactly the sharpest take and deliver their perspectives to your inbox within hours.

The Panel already has some amazing confirmed members, including The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson, Index Ventures partner Nina Achadian, Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer,  and plenty of fellow Substackers, including Casey Newton, Eric Newcomer, Brian Morrissey, and Ranjan Roy. The Panel has twenty founding members and will more than double in time. You can expect to hear from The Panel at least once per month, with members weighing in when they have something original to say or when breaking news happens in their space. I may also host discussions with these members in private threads in time. 

Deeper Reporting From New Voices (Especially on Amazon)

Rather than follow the tech press, this newsletter prioritizes original reporting and analysis that illuminates how the tech business works. So, in addition to my own reporting, I’m adding a new monthly column written by insiders who can take you inside powerful tech companies with original perspectives. Kristi Coulter, a talented author who spent eleven years inside Amazon, will lead off, writing about Amazon with rare depth. I think you’ll love Kristi’s columns — which will run for at least the next three months — and I can’t wait to publish the first one.

A New Big Tech War Stories Podcast

I’m also launching a new monthly podcast today, called Big Tech War Stories, for paid subscribers. The podcast will bring you firsthand dispatches from people working on pivotal products, or with influential leaders, within the tech giants. Interviewees will share stories of what it took to build that thing you love, or why it never arrived.

To start, we have an episode with Gaurav Nemade, the first product manager of Google’s LaMDA chatbot, a ChatGPT precursor that never shipped. In the episode, Nemade will discuss why Google never released the bot, and all the potential use cases his team dreamed up. The first Big Tech War Stories episode drops next week. 

More Narrative Busting

I’m using this moment to refocus and push harder into the narrative-busting coverage I’ve done to date. I believe it’s worth having an independent voice ask questions like why Uber’s CEO ended up with a splashy profile in the Wall Street Journal, whether generative AI was actually causing job loss, how the popular SBF narrative was so removed from reality, and if Threads was actually replacing Twitter. I think it’s worth asking these questions without fear or favor, and without an ideological ax to grind, and I plan to do much more.

I’m hopeful that this not only feels like good value to you, but will feel like essential knowledge in a complex industry full of noise and misdirection. Again, as a launch special, I’m taking $30 off the annual $120 subscription, bringing the first year to $90. You can find it here:

By subscribing to Big Technology, I believe you’ll put yourself in a better position to succeed with better information. You’ll also help support this type of work. My pledge is to make it the best subscription you have. And I will keep adding to ensure I live up to the promise.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for being here. And thank you for helping this type of work exist.

Yours, 

Alex Kantrowitz

PS: I am so deeply thankful to the many fellow Substackers and the team at Substack who’ve helped me get to this point, especially

Gergely Orosz

,

Alex Xu

,

Ranjan Roy

,

Casey Newton

,

Eric Newcomer

,

Brian Morrissey

,

Katie Harbath

,

Matt Swider

,

Lukas Ziegler

Tomas Pueyo

,

Internal Tech Emails

,

Lenny Rachitsky

,

Hanne Winarsky

,

Hamish McKenzie

, and many, many more. Thank you all for your guidance, recommendations, and support!