The Edit: The Mix with Robert Simonson
On a Journalist Pivoting to Substack, Convening In-Person Experience for Substack Community & Creating a Second Substack... with Hard-Won Learnings
The Mix with Robert Simonson
On Starting A Substack
Hello! We are Robert Simonson and Mary Kate Murray and almost exactly four-and-a-half years ago we decided to start a Substack. I should begin this post by saying we had been married for about a year-and-a-half then. It was the pandemic and I (Mary Kate) was experiencing some job insecurities. Robert saw how traditional media was rapidly changing. We were at dinner with someone who had transferred their blog to Substack and he said, “You really should start a Substack.” We thought about it a bit, but when my job at that point was ending, we decided to push the button! Check out Robert’s very first post for The Mix.
One Who Hesitates...
It took about two weeks for us to bring it all together. We were still coming up with ideas the morning we launched. (Cut to me on the bed calling our friend Mark Ward to ask if he could put the “Bar Wall” of Bar Regular subscribers together for us.) But we knew if we waited too long, our momentum would be lost. As my mom always used to say, “Opportunity knocks at the most inopportune times.” Lucky for us, Robert had been a professional journalist for more than three decades and was not only a writer, but an editor, so he knew we needed a plan to approach this new venture.
The Plan
Robert has had a long career in theater, cocktails, food and travel, writing for newspapers, magazines and online, for such publications as The New York Times (25 years contributing), The Wall Street Journal, Imbibe, New York magazine, Punch, Bon Appetit, Esquire, Playbill, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Food & Wine, Variety and Vinepair with four theater books and eight cocktail books under his belt. That said, I think the most important thing he brought to the Substack was his editing experience. He knew we needed structure. He, of course, was the Editor-in-Chief at The Mix and all my experience in administration made me the Managing Editor. We had weekly brainstorming sessions to plan upcoming posts for the months ahead. I take most of the photos and Robert writes most of the articles. This structure keeps the wheels turning—we are our own demanding bosses. Otherwise, it would be too easy to put things off.
The Purview
Since (other than washing dishes in Old World Wisconsin) Robert has never worked anywhere else but in the media, he has old-time memories of newsrooms and presses as well as new experiences from digital sites and working from home. I am constantly reminding him of articles he’s written, of which there are thousands, because there are just too many for him to store in his mind. When we are writing articles, he draws from this very deep well. It’s that wealth of experience that makes us different.
The Approach
Because we are old-fashioned in our approach, we use only research-based information (from books and the people themselves). There is no “Googling” or AI, because that is often incorrect or plagiarized. In any good writing you provide sources to show credibility. The truth is important to The Mix. We don’t accept advertising because if we recommend something, we want you to know we really like it. We want you to be able to trust what we are saying is true, or really happened. That should be the basis for all journalism.
The Mix
We are called The Mix with Robert Simonson because it is a mixture of content. We write about the theater (Robert does reviews), cocktails bars, cocktails, bartenders, bar owners, liquor brands, new books, food trends, restaurants (both historic and contemporary), chefs, regional food, travel, hotels, cities, and the people who are integral to all these things.
The Community
We survive by paid subscriptions; but our subscribers are our inspiration as well. People who read The Mix are either in the business or really “into” the business. Our subscribers know so much about what we write, they are intertwined. This is one of the reasons that we started our “Mixers” with Bar Regulars and the annual convention The Martini Expo; we feel it is so important to communicate not just in print, but in person. This is how we learn, exchange ideas and have fun. We have really gotten to know people over the past four-and-a-half years and its created quite a community, which we love.
The Milwaukee Mix… And Starting a Second Substack
Robert’s family is from Wisconsin, straight back to the mid-1800s and he’s always written about his favorite place, his home state. But last year, because of the rising cost of New York City, an apartment fail (think rats) and my job ending, we made another fast decision—to move to Milwaukee in two weeks! It was a crazy shift, but we split our time now between NYC, travel and home, now in Milwaukee. Because we knew we’d write way too much about Wisconsin for the tastes of our Mix readers, we started The Milwaukee Mix, a spin-off, niche publication that is just about Wisconsin and nearby. Our paid Mix subscribers get it for free!
If you’re thinking about starting a second Substack, beware! It’s twice as much work, which translates to twice as much time spent writing. Don’t get me wrong, one of the best things about Robert is that he loves to write. There are no complaints from him about that, but there is the problem in that sometimes there just isn’t enough time. Since the start of The Mix we’ve written 552 articles; researching, in-person visits, interviewing, photographing and writing goes into every piece.
Some Mix and Milwaukee Mix articles we want to share:
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