December 23, 2025 Thank you. None of what follows happens without your support.

Hashtag Trending has now passed three million downloads and is growing at roughly two million listens a year. Cybersecurity Today, which I host with David Shipley, will cross eleven million downloads in the coming weeks and is growing at a similar pace.

To put that in perspective, the last publication I worked on — the now-defunct IT World Canada — generated about three million page views per year. We have already exceeded that reach, and the audience continues to grow.

And if you are reading this, you are seeing the early days of a new publication: Tech Newsday. It has technically been in soft launch for far too long. I have a good excuse for the slow progress, but the honest truth is that building something properly takes time.

The growth in the podcasts didn’t happen by accident. We produce daily news, interviews, features, panels, and special episodes. We expanded into YouTube. We experimented with formats that worked and some that didn’t. We tried events, learned from the attempt, and we’ll try again — this time more carefully.

Along the way, my third “career” as a novelist took a turn I didn’t expect. Elisa: A Tale of Quantum Kisses launched at the start of the year and received some encouraging reviews. It also taught me lessons I should have known better than to ignore. Writing a book is less than half the job. Selling it is the rest.

And a week ago, the audio version of that book had beside my name, two words I didn’t think I’d see as a novelist. Best Seller. 

So now, after many months and more than a few false starts, we are preparing to properly launch a revived Tech Newsday.

But I have reached my allotted three score and ten years. It’s fair to ask why I’m still doing this. My wife certainly does, from time to time.

The answer is simple, and a little complicated.

One motivation is probably not entirely healthy. IT World Canada failed, and I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t inevitable — that with better timing, better discipline, and a different approach, it could have succeeded. With about six thousand dollars of investment and a handful of generous donations, our new publishing company has grown far beyond what I expected.

The second motivation matters more.

I believe Canada needs a serious, independent technology publication with a Canadian point of view. We are global — our U.S. audience rivals our Canadian one — but perspective matters. Policy, regulation, talent, research, and investment look different through a Canadian lens, and those differences deserve proper coverage.

Over the coming year, I want to tell more Canadian technology stories. Whether that happens will depend on support from Canadian tech companies, and from the Canadian arms of international firms. One of the hard lessons from IT World Canada was that many organizations wanted coverage of their Canadian activities but weren’t willing to support the publication doing that work.

To you out there who buy their products. Ask them what support they provide for Canadian publications.

Because won’t repeat past mistakes. The coming year will be a test of whether that support truly exists.

But you can’t ask and not offer value. Tech Newsday will offer that value – straightforward: global and hopefully local technology news, reported accurately, with a Canadian sensibility.

It will be quick to read. Factual. Without hype.

It will be designed for mobile first, with a small number of ads that pay the bills — not a flood of ads with content squeezed in between. If you’ve tried to reach tech publications on your phone, you know what I mean.

It will exist not behind a paywall, but through voluntary membership and reader support.

To those who have already stepped up, thank you.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out the publication more formally. You’ll see daily news, and from time to time, thoughtful editorial from people who work hands-on in the industry. I’ll also be assembling a different kind of editorial board in the months ahead.

If you’ve subscribed and haven’t gotten a newsletter. Mea culpa. We will start with a weekly newsletter and build from there. We will never sell our list. Ever. If sponsors want to reach you they can place one of the few ads.

We want to see if you can do this differently. And profitably. Maybe that’s why I’m still excited by all of this.

Or maybe there’s a debt to be paid.

I would never have built any of it without the influence and encouragement of Fawn Annan. I will always remember her.

I would never have made it through the past few years without the patience and support of my wife.

And I could not have done any of this without you. If you’re still reading – its you I’m talking to. Thank you.

And have a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous New Year.