Questions & troubleshooting
How City Hall Watcher works
Everything about subscribing, paying, cancelling and — most commonly — getting the newsletter to actually land in your inbox. If your question isn’t here, email me.
Subscribing & billing
What does it cost?
$6.78 a month, or $67.80 a year if you pay annually — which works out to two months free. HST (or the applicable local tax) is included in that price, not added on top.
What do I actually get?
An issue of City Hall Watcher every Monday (except on holidays), delivered by email and also readable on the web. Each one covers what Council and its committees are doing that week, with analysis, vote results and charts. Subscribers also get access to the Council Scorecard.
Some issues are free to read. Most are for subscribers.
How do I pay, and is it secure?
The newsletter is managed by Substack and payments are processed by Stripe. I never see or store your card details.
Can I cancel?
Any time, no questions asked. Go to your account page and click the cancel link.
I need a receipt or an invoice.
An archive of your receipts lives on your account page.
If you need an invoice generated in advance so you can get corporate approval before paying, I can absolutely do that — just email me.
For your records: HST is collected and included in the price of all subscriptions. HST #846 351 534 RT 0001.
Do you do group or team subscriptions?
Yes. Group rates are available for teams of four or more, and there are discounts for larger teams — send me an email and we’ll work something out. Other special requests get accommodated to the best of my ability.
Can I buy a gift subscription?
You can, for friends and/or enemies, even. Gift subscriptions are available through Substack.
Free subscriptions
I want the right people reading this
Free, limited-time subscriptions are available if you are:
- Currently enrolled in journalism school
- Currently enrolled in an urban studies or other related program
- Starting out covering Toronto City Hall and can’t yet afford a subscription
- An advocate or activist doing work at Toronto City Hall and can’t afford a subscription
Troubleshooting
I’m not getting the newsletter. Where is it?
Start with your spam or junk folder — that’s the culprit a lot of the time. If you use Gmail, also check the Promotions tab.
Then run the email self-test on your account page. It sends a test message straight to you. If that test doesn’t arrive either, get in touch and I’ll dig into it.
How do I stop it going to spam in the first place?
Add graphicmatt@substack.com to your contacts, and — if your first issue
landed in spam or in Promotions — drag it into your main inbox and tell your mail
client it isn’t spam. That usually settles it permanently.
If you’re reading at a work address behind a strict corporate filter, ask your IT
team to allow mail from substack.com.
The issue got cut off partway through.
Gmail in particular clips long messages. City Hall Watcher issues frequently run long enough to trigger it. Click the “View entire message” link at the bottom, or use the “Read on the web” link near the top of every issue.
Can I read past issues?
Yes — the full archive goes back to the first issue in January 2019. Subscribers can read all of it.
I want to change my email address.
You can update it yourself on your account page.
Do I need a subscription to use the apps?
City Hall Watcher LIVE, Election Projection, the Lobbying Report Cards and Campaign Cash are free for everyone, no account needed. The Council Scorecard is for subscribers. Subscribers can find the current access code here.
Can I pitch you a story, or write for the newsletter?
Please do — see Write for CHW for what I’m looking for and what it pays.
$6.78/month or $67.80/year, HST included. Cancel anytime.