Our New Live Rumble Program Debuts its "Pre-Launch" Wednesday Night, 7pm ET, on Locals
We hope you'll join us over the next two weeks with exclusive access to our pre-launch test runs, as the debut of our new live nightly program on Rumble rapidly approaches.
I'm very excited to announce that the debut of "System Update” — our new nightly live prime-time program on Rumble about which I've written several times — is rapidly approaching. I won't repeat all the information we have already provided about the vision we have for this new program and why we are so excited about it — I laid that out in full detail in this note from two weeks ago — but we really believe that adding this live nightly news broadcast to the other journalism we already provide will significantly expand the reach and impact of our work in numerous ways.
Tomorrow night, November 16, at 7:00 pm ET, we will begin to broadcast two weeks of pre-launch "test-runs” of our program. Those pre-launch test-run episodes will air exclusively on Locals, the community platform purchased by Rumble last year. All subscribers to our Substack page here will have exclusive access to watch these two weeks of test shows on Locals, and I want to really encourage you to watch and participate, and will explain why it is important to us that you do so if you can.
Once the new live nightly show launches in earnest on Rumble in roughly two weeks, it will be freely available to the public to ensure maximum reach and impact. But we decided to broadcast the two weeks of our pre-launch — nightly test runs of the show — exclusively for our Substack subscribers in order to perfect the show along with you. As we prepare our launch on Rumble, we want to receive as much feedback as possible from our longest-term and most devoted readers here, to hear from you on what works and does not work, and in general to incorporate into our planning your suggestions for how this new show can have its largest and most constructive impact possible.
As we have explained, those who are paid subscribers to our Substack page here are automatically entitled to a free membership on Locals for as long as your Substack subscription is scheduled to last (if, for instance, you have seven months remaining on your Substack subscription, then you will automatically have access to seven months of a full Locals membership, with all the benefits and access it entails). The only step we need you to take in order to activate your membership to our Locals community is to register for a new account on the Locals platform (by clicking here) using the same email address you use for your Substack subscription here. You have likely already received emails directly from Locals with the link to obtain your free Locals membership. If you need assistance with your Locals account or the sign up process, please reach out to support@locals.com with any questions.
The two primary motives for our choosing to broadcast our new live program exclusively on Rumble is that the platform has grown very rapidly over the last two years as frustration with Big Tech censorship mounts, ensuring that we can reach the millions of people already using the platform and help it grow even more. We are also convinced — not due to words but to actions — of the authenticity of Rumble's commitment to resisting censorship pressures from neoliberal political and media power centers, instead providing a significant online platform that fights for and protects the core values of free speech, a free press, and free inquiry. And, as this Wall Street Journal article reporting on our new show points out, Rumble has heavily invested in our new show — as they did for Russell Brand's already-launched show as part of the same new live network on Rumble — to ensure that we could build a new state-of the-art studio and a sizable production team to help us produce a top-quality program.
But the Locals platform that is now part of Rumble, and your membership to our community page there, will also provide exciting opportunities. To begin with, your Locals membership will provide the exclusive ability to watch the first couple of weeks of test-run episodes and provide meaningful feedback to help us shape the show, which we genuinely want. Once we launch on Rumble, at the end of each one-hour program we will move to Locals for an after-show of 20-30 minutes where I will take questions, respond to critiques, and otherwise engage with ideas from our audience. While the Rumble program itself will be freely available to the public, the after-show on Locals will be exclusively for Locals members. That is the part of the show that will be interactive and responsive, attributes which I have long believed are vital for keeping journalists honest and accountable to their audience.
The community nature of Locals also means that readers here will have the ability to publish their own essays, contributions and comments that can attract wide exposure within the community. And all of our written journalism — that has always been and will continue be central to the work I do — will be available on Locals. It will function similarly to my articles on Substack: most will be freely available to the public to ensure maximum reach, but the comment section and other interactive parts of the platform will be for subscribers only.
These next two weeks are designed to be test-runs — working out some last-minute technical issues and figuring out some glitches that can only be identified while on air — so the show will be imperfect until it launches. That is the idea for this two weeks of test runs: to work with you to perfect the program. I built my blog, and really my journalism career, by always working collaboratively with my readership.
But while these next two weeks of pre-launch shows are “test runs,” we absolutely intend for the show to be of the highest quality possible. All of my energy and all our team’s attention will be poured into the in-depth monologue I will prepare to start each show, and the guests we interview and the ways we analyze and dissect news stories are intended to be very similar to the quality that will shape those segments once we launch for real on Rumble. There will be some glitches and things to improve during this pre-launch stage, but I would never request the time of my readership if I did not think we were providing you with something worth that time.
The written reporting and analysis we do here will always continue. It is the anchor of my work. And as we do for our video reporting now, we will provide transcripts of our shows for those who prefer to read rather than watch.
But I am convinced that this new nightly live show — though requiring a significant commitment of time and resources — will meaningfully augment and expand the weight and influence that our journalism can wield. If you are an unpaid subscriber here, you can become a paid subscriber, which will also entitle you to full Locals access. If you are already a paid subscriber, you need only opt-in to your new free Locals membership as an add-on to what you already have here. We really hope you will join us in this new and exciting project.
LOVE YOU GLENN!
Congratulations Glenn! Can't wait to watch.