About

What is Yahara Flyer?

Yahara Flyer is a minimal monthly print and online newsletter about and for Madison, Wisconsin. We aim to provide an independent, adversarial journalistic voice in a simple format. For now, it will mostly consist of commentary, but may offer more original reporting as we get going.

Each issue consists of two things: 1) The main article 2) “Crane’s Croak,” a column of anecdotes, observations, and brief miscellany. Each issue spans one sheet of paper, front and back. That’s it. Beyond that, each issue is a bit of an experiment. Print distribution locations to be announced.

When is Yahara Flyer published?

New issues of Yahara Flyer will be published monthly. If you would like your business to be a pickup location, get in touch!

Who is behind Yahara Flyer?

Yahara Flyer is operated by Scott Gordon. Scott has covered culture and politics in Madison for about 20 years. He co-founded Tone Madison (RIP), an independent worker-owned outlet that published a range of locally focused commentary, criticism, and original reporting from 2014 to 2026. Before that, he contributed to outlets including The A.V. Club, Dane101 (RIP), WisContext (RIP), and Isthmus. He has also done a fair bit of non-media work and is semi-retired from journalism but also can’t entirely stop. He plays music and gets involved in other things. OK, from here on out I’m just going to talk in first-person because writing in third-person about yourself always feels weird.

Yahara Flyer is a fully independent publication and fully locally owned. I am the only one calling the shots here, in both editorial and business matters. No parent company, corporate backers, or major funders/investors.

How can I contact you?

Please email yaharaflyer@proton.me.

How is Yahara Flyer funded?

Yahara Flyer relies on paid subscriptions from our readers to cover basic operational costs. I may explore grant funding and some limited form of advertising in the future, but for now the idea is to keep this as lean and simple as possible.

Will you ever have longer articles?

For now, I'm keeping it brief (well, by my verbose standards) due to the small print format. I may serialize longer pieces across multiple issues. I love long-form reporting and writing, and think there should be more of it. For now, I'm starting small. If Yahara Flyer grows, it will do so only very carefully and gradually.

Will you ever publish more stuff, or more frequently?

If we ever have the funding and capacity to do so, then yes. But again, I am taking my time, and that is a long way off.

Will articles be online?

Yes. Subscribers can also opt to receive each issue via email.

Will there be any online-only articles?

Not at this time.

Why this format and design?

Yahara Flyer deliberately takes a slow and intentional approach. I got a little burned out after years of being maniacally online, and from running an online publication that was small but quite a lot of work. I want to spend more time connecting with readers offline and less time fussing with the logistics of online publishing.

The design makes Yahara Flyer cheap to print and distribute. The goal is that I (or anyone else?) can print it off on a cheap B&W printer without sacrificing legibility.

It also is meant to evoke a time when the digital world offered a sense of possibility, but hadn’t yet pervaded every aspect of our lives and saturated our attention spans. Ah, were we ever so naive!

Can I support Yahara Flyer?

Yes! Click the "Subscribe" button at the top right for more info.

Is my subscription payment a tax-deductible donation?

No, sorry. Right now, I don't have the capacity to deal with the administrative fiddly-diddly of setting up a nonprofit.

What do I get for subscribing to Yahara Flyer?

Issues of Yahara Flyer. If you would like to receive issues by mail, please subscribe at the $10 or $25 tiers.

Do you take paid advertisements?

Not at this time.

I object to your ideas and imagine that you are quite a repellent person. Will you argue with me on the internet?

No.

Wow, so much for the free exchange of ideas. Will you argue with me in a bar?

Maybe, but you will get stuck with the tab.

Will you argue with me on a transcontinental flight?

Don’t push your luck.

Do you accept contributions from freelance writers?

Not at this time, but I’d like to. First, YF would need to raise enough of a budget to pay freelancers fairly and promptly. If and when I accomplish that, I will update this website with pitch guidelines and pay details. I don’t believe in asking people to work for free (or for the abysmal rates that many publications pay freelancers), and I would need to have enough of a freelance budget to plan ahead and give freelancers the attentive editing they deserve.

I do welcome readers to reach out with suggestions for the “Crane’s Croak” column. If you notice something funny or want to share an observation about local matters, send it along to cranescroak@proton.me. If we decide to use it, we will publish it with credit.

What are your standards and ethics?

Here’s our editorial ethics policy:

• Get the facts right.
• I reject objectivity/both-sides-ism/artificial neutrality. I aim to publish explicitly left-wing journalism. Writers here get to have opinions, even in the context of reported pieces. But they need to back up those opinions with sound arguments, and base those arguments on sound facts. Similarly, a purely opinion piece does not give writers a free pass to play fast and loose with facts.
• Question power.
• Question the prevailing narrative.
• Stick up for vulnerable and marginalized voices.
• Challenge Madison to be a better community.
• Editorial independence from financial considerations.
• Treat sources and readers with dignity and empathy.
• Do not use tools marketed as "AI."

Is Yahara Flyer a continuation of Tone Madison?

In spirit, but only in spirit. I still think believe in the kind of anachronistic, adversarial, smart-assed writing we published at Tone Madison. Madison needs more alternatives to establishment media outlets. At the same time, Yahara Flyer is smaller in scope and doesn’t share Tone Madison’s ambition to publish daily-ish online. I’m very proud of the work we did at Tone Madison and of course I am sad that it shut down, but I’m really aiming to experiment with a different approach here.

Do you have an events calendar?

No. “Crane’s Croak” may occasionally include mention of upcoming events, at editorial whim and discretion.

Can I spam you with event listings anyway?

I can’t stop you, but it is not the best use of your time.

Do you have social media accounts?

Not at this time.