What we cover
If you put Silver Bulletin into a machine-learning algorithm, I’d imagine it would say our content falls into roughly four clusters:
Polling, elections and public opinion. We’re perhaps best known for our election forecast and how we write about it through our Model Talk columns. But we also perpetually maintain presidential approval ratings and pollster ratings and write about the challenges of surveying public opinion.
Essays on political and cultural trends and public policy. I’d call these “hot takes,” but we hope that most of them are well thought-out. Two particular interests of mine are long-term shifts in political ideology in the United States and political strategy, especially from a game theory lens. There are occasional wonky forays into economic data and public policy.
Sports and games. Both sports models and essays and analyses about sports. By “games,” I don’t mean, say, Scrabble — though we’d take a freelance pitch on Scrabble — but rather in the sense of how the gambling industry euphemistically refers to itself as “gaming.” I play poker and sometimes write about it; we cover sports betting scandals, and I maintain a Vegas guide.
Media, tech, markets and AI. I have a lot of experience in media — in other words, I’m getting old — and I frequently explain and criticize it, along with sometimes criticizing the critics. I like to write about the intersection of markets and politics. We also occasionally open up the curtain to talk about the business of Substack itself (disclosure: I’m an investor). I write about AI, too, and this will probably become a bigger beat over time. The world I call “the River” is also fair game, particularly the mentality of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
Why it helps if you subscribe
Silver Bulletin launched paid subscriptions in September 2023. Paid subscribers get complete access to all articles (approximately ~1x paid feature per week), models (updated ~daily) and archives and lock in current pricing indefinitely.
However, free subscriptions are also much very appreciated! Here’s my quick pitch to you:
As I’ve learned, email newsletters — and particularly this one — have very high open rates. Empirically, people who signed up for Silver Bulletin have found most of the content useful and engaging.
Newsletters are a slow burn compared to other ways of distributing content, relying more on referrals and word-of-mouth and with a longer shelf life. Email opens are a key driver of this, especially if you’re also sharing the posts you find most useful. We try really hard to make every email we send you from Silver Bulletin worth opening.
The medium-term outlook for Twitter/X and other social media platforms is unstable, so subscribing is the easiest way to stay in touch.
How to reach me for urgent inquiries
NATE DOT SILVER DOT MEDIA AT GMAIL DOT COM. Or find someone who knows me.
Freelance stories
We occasionally publish (and pay for) freelance stories; email me at the address above if you have a pitch. We’re looking for stories in the core Silver Bulletin wheelhouse that provide perspective or subject-matter expertise that our staff lacks. We do not reply to all pitches but we appreciate your submissions.
As of June 2025, we’ve established a standard freelance rate for first-time contributors of $700 for a medium-length article (1500-2000 words). We will pay more for stories that require extensive original research or reporting. Expect stories to go through an edit process. We will pay a kill fee of 50 percent if there’s extensive good-faith back-and-forth editing (determined at our discretion) but we don’t wind up publishing.
Customer service
Email silver.bulletin.customer.service@gmail.com. We are a small business, meaning some things won’t get handled immediately. But we very much appreciate your patronage and know the subscription process can sometimes be confusing at Substack.
