There are certain writers whose work I'm always eager to read, no matter what they're writing about. I follow them because I trust their sensibility and I'm emotionally invested in their body of work. The topic isn't terribly important — I wasn't interested in country music until Elamin Abdelmahmoud wrote about it, and I wasn't interested in Catholic saints until I read Anne Thériault's articles.
Instead of an algorithm, Bylines depends on people and personal recommendations. Every author you follow can themselves recommend writers, whose work will also show up in your feed.
I'm not concerned with what's trending. A good story should still be enjoyable months or years from when it's published, and Bylines encourages you to revisit and rediscover "old" stories.
To keep a consistent quality to the stories on Bylines, there are certain types of articles I don't focus on: short news briefs, advertorials, Q&As, recipes, and the like. This means readers will always find something they can really sink their teeth into.
I'm also not concerned with genre or topic. If you're someone who gravitates towards science & technology reporting, for example, you might be surprised to find one of your favourite writers covers another topic with just as much skill. Bylines encourages you to stop thinking about what you want to read, and start thinking about who you want to read.
The nature of digital media is incredibly fragile. Publications can disappear, taking writers' work down forever. So Bylines makes it easy to read archived versions of stories, even if the website it was on no longer exists.
Bylines doesn't collect your personal information or keep track of your reading habits. This site makes money by selling subscriptions to authors. An author's Bylines profile acts as a portfolio: a collection of meaningful articles organized in a clean format that you can send to potential editors. I'm eager to work with authors, especially freelancers, to build features they need to make their lives easier and connect with the readers who love them.
If you have any questions about Bylines, I'd be happy to chat. Send me an email at sam@samnabi.com.
— Sam Nabi