One year, 12x growth: Building a stronger WM Review for the fight ahead
It's the first anniversary of transferring all operations from our old site to Substack—a year of exponential growth for The WM Review.
It's the first anniversary of transferring all operations from our old site to Substack—a year of exponential growth for The WM Review.
Dear Friends,
I wanted to take a quick pause in our usual material, and update you on how things have changed for The WM Review over the last year.
Exactly one year ago today we made a full transition from our old site on WordPress to this new site.
Early days at the old site
When we started operations in June 2021, M.J. McCusker and I had a straightforward set of goals.
We wanted to create a place to publish our ideas, in our own way, without being dependent on anyone else.
We wanted to provide clarity and a solution for some fundamental spiritual and intellectual problems: the collapse of Catholic discernment, and the betrayal of tradition by the Conciliar/Synodal Church and the many talking heads online.
Our early following grew, and we started getting some recognition.
I think people were also intrigued to see such uncompromising ideas expressed in a patient, non-polemical manner.
This steady growth continued over the next few years.
The 2024 move
In 2024, I'd heard from other writers that the reach and impact available through Substack was much higher than what they'd seen elsewhere—so, we decided to try it.
In March 2024, we decided to run two sites in tandem for a month. Almost immediately, the reports proved to be true.
Despite initial hurdles—like getting around Twitter’s suppression of Substack links—we quickly saw exponential growth.
In April 2024, the decision was clear: we needed to make the switch full time.
In the past year, our mailing list has grown fivefold—and our daily readership, an astonishing twelvefold.
We reached milestones we never thought possible. For instance, we’re currently ranked among the Top 100 for Faith & Spirituality on Substack.
How we have grown
Part of the growth has come from increasing the volume of our output, and responding rapidly to key events. We are not a news site, and we don't try to track every event.
But some things are just too big to miss.
Over the past year, our coverage of such events has really put eyes on The WM Review. For example...
Francis’s blasphemous claim that all religions lead to God (September 2024)
Archbishop Viganò’s excommunication and his declaration of sede vacante
The death of Bishop Richard Williamson, which brought a wave of new readers
The recent death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, marking a potential turning point in this crisis.
At each of these pivotal moments, we’ve been struck by the response and appreciation.
Not everyone who finds The WM Review sticks around, but those who do are exposed to the same, calmly and kindly hard-hitting material that earned us our following in those first three years.
We’re not priests or spiritual directors, and we don’t claim to be. But we do offer something else that’s rare today:
Clarity, when others obscure
Considered long-form writing, where others are content to ramble on camera
Language and categories needed to resist modern errors, rather than loopholes
Space for Catholics to read, think, and discuss freely, without the distortions of euphemism, fear, or institutional paralysis.
What’s ahead
We will see what the future holds for us. But looking ahead, we’re preparing for the next stage of this crisis.
We expect more developments in the crisis soon—obviously the election of a new claimant to the Holy See, but also others, such as the possible consecration of SSPX bishops. Such developments will no doubt bring more readers seeking clarity.
And that’s to say nothing about unforeseen events which will demand that clarity too.
That's why we are making sure that we are ready now to respond, and to grow—so we can present our fellow Catholics with what they need to keep the faith in the current crisis in the Church.
We have a backlog of urgent material underway: on ecclesiology, papal legitimacy, the growing interest in esotericism amongst certain traditionalists, and ways for Catholics to keep the faith in a crisis like this.
However, with Francis now gone, we are entering a new and more volatile phase. Talk of “new beginnings” and even “unity” is already in the air.
In the modern minefield, we want to help our fellow Catholics navigate the confusion with confidence—and to give them what they need to recognise and reject the modernist subversion of the Church.
And yes, “reject”: because unless there is a complete rejection of Vatican II and its new religion, the crisis will deepen, and the deception will continue.
We also want to spare our readers…
The years they might spend wandering without clear direction,
The wasted money on the wrong sorts of books
The exhaustion of sifting through unreliable sources, polluted by attempts to find a conservative compromise with the Vatican II revolution.
The WM Review is free for readers. This is because we believe these ideas must reach as many people as possible.
But none of this work would be possible without your support.
This is why we provide WM+ articles—additional material for those who choose to support this work financially. This helps us continue producing serious Catholic research, while ensuring that the main body of material remains accessible for all.
If you are already a WM+ member, then thank you very much. You are what keeps the wheels turning at The WM Review. Without you, we would likely need to shut down.
(WM+ membership is available free to all clergy, religious, and seminarians upon request.)
Subscribing to WM+ is worth it—because you will be supporting work that is already making an proven impact.
Over the past few years, the responses we’ve received confirmation that this work is hitting home. The testimonials we’ve received speak volumes.
It can be embarrassing to mention, but we have received quiet but meaningful support from clergy, seminarians, and serious lay Catholics.
For example, we have been encouraged by:
Archbishop Viganò, who has publicly praised work by our editors
Bishop Richard Williamson and Bishop Daniel Dolan, both of whom expressed support for our efforts
Fr William Jenkins (SSPV), who publicly recommended The WM Review's work as “thoughtful and compelling”
Priests from a range of perspectives who have described The WM Review as “the best site in existence,” “marvelous,” and “the most reliably dispassionate and objective analysis of the most crucial issues facing the Church.”
Seminarians have praised our clarity and refusal to sensationalise or compromise.
Influential lay Catholics—Kennedy Hall, Mother Miriam, and Peter Kwasniewski—have publicly recognised the value of the site, even when some of them might disagree with our conclusions.
And our own WM+ supporters have given us encouragements such as:
“Your patient and gentle writing style helped me to reach the sede vacante theological conclusion
“I cannot recommend enough The WM Review and its extensive body of work. If you wish to deepen your understanding of the Catholic faith, particularly in its purest form - free from corruption or heresy - the WM Review is an invaluable and excellent source… I simply can't stop reading them.”
“The WM Review helps to provide both clarity and hope during the crisis in the Church. Seeing so many facing confusion and hoping they'll discover this great resource.”
All these testimonials confirm one thing to us: The WM Review must remain free for all.
But it cannot do so without your help.
If you’ve found this work useful—if you want to ensure that clarity remains available in this long war against the Church—please consider subscribing today.
Every subscriber directly contributes to the strength and independence of our work.
Subscriptions fund our research and writing
They allow us to publish more, with greater freedom
And they ensure that Catholics everywhere can access this work, regardless of means.
If you believe Catholics need clarity and courage in the face of betrayal and collapse—then subscribe today.
Thanks again for this great first year on Substack.
Yours faithfully,
S.D. Wright
Co-editor of The WM Review
PS: The darkness of our time can get some people down. Without taking steps to grow in faith and the other virtues, we’re sitting ducks.
We need to build real habits of spiritual reading, meditation, and a deep familiarity with the Gospels—we need to know and love Christ Our Lord, because only then can we serve him in this life, and be happy with him forever in the next.
That’s why I set up Father Coleridge Reader earlier this year.
Fr Henry James Coleridge SJ was an English Jesuit priest in the nineteenth century, and a prolific author. He wrote over twenty volumes on the life of Our Lord.
His works offer us:
Deep engagement with the life of Christ, untainted by modern sentimentalism
Regular, substantial contact with a forgotten master of English Catholic writing
A path back to reading and thinking as Catholics once did—slowly, carefully, reverently
The Father Coleridge Reader is currently working through selections of his work, based around the liturgical year—the lectionary of Gospel readings for the traditional Roman Rite.
That means each week, you’ll get a few manageable chunks of text to help you get ready for Mass on Sunday.
If you’re tired of insipid or shallow devotional texts and want to be reconnected with true doctrine, reverent reading, and serious thought, then head over to Father Coleridge Reader and sign up for that too.
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The AI rendition of you guys is hilarious 😆 I’d be terrified of having wolves so close to me 😨