Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)

@wolfbridge

Founder & Editor of @typebarmagazine.bsky.social

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Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· 27d

All “AI” does is steal and destroy. Anyone defending it is a bullshit artist

The giant slurry net from the Simpsons where it trawls the ocean floor and then grinds all the wildlife into paste

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jul 15

This is the kind of voice message I send to a friend while I’m high

anyway I came up with a great comedy bit That I called the pissy and shitty Addams family OK and it goes a little something like this. I'll try not to burst out laughing. Oh no Let me compose myself and try to do this So it goes the pissy and shitty Addams family and it goes like this. They did the piss they did the shit they did the piss they did the shit they did the piss they did the piss they did the shit and just that basically to the Addams family theme song right over and over

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jul 14

Local food truck posted this on Insta. My “don’t urinate on local businesses” post is raising lots of questions already answered by my post.

Sign from a local food truck that says:

Please respect the surrounding businesses. Do not urinate on their property .

There is a no smoking sign thing over a stick
Figure of a guy urinating. There’s also a picture of a store and a building.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jul 13

I'm genuinely having so much fun editing this pitching seminar :) But guidelines are critical. They allow for a straight line between the editor's attention and your pitch!!

a brain emoji labeled "editor's brain" next to a straight red line pointing rightward labeled "submission guidelines next to a full mailbox emoji labeled "your pitch"

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jul 11

A red star ☺️ What makes it oddly more symbolic is its essentially spoils of class war since it’s from the department store I used to work at that went out of business lol.

A wall with a red star in the center. There is a periodic table of typefaces next to it. Above is a painting of a rural windmill. Next to that is a 20s flapper lady smoking a cigarette and a pitch canker drawing of birds screaming at a skeleton as well as another pitch canker of an Angel.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 18

Found this at the thrift store today. Weird little oddities like this are what make the hobby of CD collecting lots of fun.

The London symphony orchestra does Tchaikovsky’s nutcracker but the CD is published by Victoria’s Secret

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 18

I don’t like posting pictures of myself.L because I want to protect my secret identity but since I’ll be deleting this later and nobody here knows me by my appearance… This was a nice photo of me taken today so if you’re curious what I look like…

A white man with brown hair sitting in a restaurant booth that’s wooden. There is light coming from a window next to him on the right side. He is wearing a black shirt and there is an open menu on the table.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 14

Drew a robot

A robot with a square head and square body and electricity through antenna on its ears

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 14

If the Knicks win it’s because I got the Knicks-themed black and white (or blue and orange in this case) cookie from the bakery.

A black and white cookie from the bakery but the frosting is blue and orange.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 12

These types of items showing up at thrift stores are obviously tragic in their own way but also fascinating. You’re seeing life removed from its context

Baseball with writing on it: “5-13-11 moms 1st foil catch”

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 10

Found this at the thrift store. Luckiest man on earth?

ECW extreme music CD with sandman on the cover shirtless and wrapped in barbed wire smoking a cigarette. A crazy find for a 90s wrestling fan.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 8

Here's the whole exchange (with typo fixed womp--plz be nice we're a one-man show) I was glad to have the redirection because in the era of spectacle it's easy to forget how reporting is ultimately the bedrock of the entire apparatus. www.typebarmagazine.com/how-big-tech...

TBM: In the book you discuss how the internet's initial disruption to Big Journalism wasn't from Big Tech but was from individuals like Matt Drudge who had less reason to make nice with industry power players and could therefore publish more aggressive stories that grew increasingly appealing to audiences becoming wary of establishment talking points. I feel like we're seeing the same dynamic at play to some degree in 2026. Material conditions have only decayed and establishment outlets have shown themselves to be increasingly out of step with people on a variety of issues. A guy like Hasan Piker gets popular because he's making people feel heard in ways establishment actors don't.

Yet what's different is now there exists a mechanism for Big Tech to siphon revenue away from anti-establishment upstarts.

People could point to Piker's material wealth (his "infamous" $2.7 million home) as proof that the system is working fine for rewarding news personalities. But like many major streamers, he is probably underpaid relative to what he brings a platform like Twitch, and relative to what someone of his popularity would've been making on TV in the mid-90s. You can see similar dynamics with Substack, a platform trying to seduce all the writers into what Max Read recently called "YouTube-for-words" in his post on moving to Patreon.

The media disruptors that could become the establishment by taking on the establishment, and make money in the process, now can't actually make much money or not enough to meaningfully affect change. How accurate of a read do you think this is of our current moment? How can we possibly get out of it without massive government intervention that we know will not come without...uhh..lots of things going differently?

Whittaker: This is a really interesting question but one that I’d frame differently. While the business of journalism is incredibly important to sustain news production and distribution, I would also argue that throughout the twentieth century it became more concerned with maintaining the business of journalism – which is why so much of it seems out of step with people’s genuine concerns today. I like Hasan Piker, but I’d rather look at the example of someone like Motaz Azaiza, a photojournalist who I only started following after the manuscript was submitted. He had been recording daily life in Gaza on a regular basis prior to the attacks by Hamas on October 7, and although there are some images of bombed out buildings there are many more beautiful images of people and the territory. Unsurprisingly – although not all at once – his photographs become much grimmer over the years as he documented the ongoing destruction of the strip and which also saw the death of a number of his relatives when Israel bombed the the Deir al-Balah Camp in October 2023.

I mention Azaiza as one example among many. He is reliant on a major platform that is completely outside his control - literally so: Instagram briefly blocked him and he was apparently kicked off Facebook amidst accusations of spreading fake news. I don’t actually agree with all his commentary, but looking through his images and videos seems to show a very high level of reportage. His reach has also grown, from the low thousands on Instagram to nearly 15 million as I write, but more so in that his photos and videos are shared by news organisations unable to report from Gaza.

My reframing of your question, then, is that I would prefer to see journalists concentrate on reporting rather than influence. It is not that I’m naïve enough to presume that influence is not important, but that in the post-truth world in which we find ourselves it is more important than ever to have individuals who care enough about what they see to record it. Truth will not automatically [come] out, but if no one is trying to even discover what it is then we have no chance to find it at all. This often means using platforms that are extractive – even exploitative – but I’m also old enough to remember Robert Maxwell embezzling millions of pounds from the Mirror Group Newspapers pension fund…

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 8

I interviewed Jason Whittaker, author of You Want What We've Got: Big Tech vs. Big Journalism, and it produced this striking moment calling out how we (myself included) often mistake influence in journalism for something more important www.typebarmagazine.com/how-big-tech...

Jason Whittaker speaking: My reframing of your question, then, is that I would prefer to see journalists concentrate on reporting rather than influence. It is not that I’m naïve enough to presume that influence is not important, but that in the post-truth world in which we find ourselves it is more important than ever to have people individuals who care enough about what they see to record it. Truth will not automatically out, but if no one is trying to even discover what it is then we have no chance to find it at all. This often means using platforms that are extractive – even exploitative – but I’m also old enough to remember Robert Maxwell embezzling millions of pounds from the Mirror Group Newspapers pension fund…

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 8

This piece of the lid (clamper) is rattling too much (the edges I can push up and down). Screw in the center doesn’t seem to be loose. Any advice on fixing this?

A cd player with the lid open with clamper at the center of the frame. Bye Bye Birdie is in the cd player.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 7

Found this old smith corona at the thrift store. This is a riff on an Olivetti model which itself was a riff on the Selectric. They took the type element but kept the moving carriage of a traditional typewriter

Brown and beige smith corona vantage typewriter

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 7

Today was my first day of picking 5 CDs at random for the daily playlist. Quite an eclectic selection!

5 CDs on top of a CD player:

-Glenn Miller and his army Air Force band.
-Grease 2
-Recovery (Eminem)
-Ludwig Van Beethoven compilation CD
-Grammy Nominees 2001

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 6

🤔

a text graphic that says "pitching (shortform) nonfiction" with like a height chart stick figure next to shortform.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 4

The teenage mutant ninja turtles text but it says "screwworm in the U.S. Cattle" because it's the same syllables as teenage mutant ninja turtles.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 3

I work *very* hard to make sure Typebar delivers on its promise. And I want to keep working this hard. Only *you* can make sure Typebar survives until my last breath instead of my last dollar. www.typebarmagazine.com#/portal/sign...

Typebar Magazine offers a unique approach not found elsewhere. We encourage the study of older literature. We don't shy away from holding the literary establishment to task. When we discuss new releases our coverage is heavily curated to discuss what's interesting instead of what's hyped, prioritizing academic study, fresh literature, or legitimate genre innovation. We expand the lens of literary criticism to under-analyzed fields like YouTube and tabletop gaming. We do this with a radical transparency compared to other major literary enterprises. And we do it all with a staff of one and charge just $50 a year.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 1

Is this potato safe to eat? Are the little black spots dangerous or normal? It’s as hard as a normal potato and smells fine. I gave it a bath in baking soda and water then scrubbed it and those Little spots still don’t come off

A potato with markings on it that I can’t tell are good or bad

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 1

Knicks fever is sweeping the New York pizza places

Orange and blue garlic knots at a pizza place with a sign that says “ask about our knicks knots! Our delicious garlic knots in orange and blue to celebrate our New York Knicks!”

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 1

Saw this nicotine-stained beast at the thrift store today

An old typewriter with a deep yellow hue possibly due to nicotine stains

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· Jun 1

Some great environmental storytelling on my way to the mailbox this morning

Discarded, empty, and trampled box of Gas-X on the sidewalk

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· May 27

Huge moment for a Media Twitter old-head like myself: A Typebar Magazine short story ("Tiddies" by @rsbenedict.bsky.social) got a shoutout in Today in Tabs!! www.todayintabs.com/p/the-kind-o...

But then at least I wouldn’t be Granta’s even more embarrassing statement about it which says: “We showed Claude.ai the story and asked whether it was AI-generated,” and then goes on to quote Claude’s “analysis” at some length. Bro. Bro. What are we doing? What’s going on? We certainly don’t need A.I. to create award-winning literary short fiction in a world where John Paul Brammer can win the Brammer Prize for Excellence in Landlocked Literature with the excellent landlocked literary short story “Regionally-Specific Award-Winning Short Story,” not to even mention RS Benedict’s “Tiddies.”

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· May 25

anybody whose job requires them to be on social media should get hazard pay

the meme of the guy in a brown jacket and blue shirt standing up in the town meeting while people look on.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· May 24

capitalism is going great

On one side, Romanoff said, some women encounter advice to accept only expensive first dates as proof of value or interest. On the other, she said, some men are being told not to spend money on dates at all.

"The echo chambers, they're villainizing the opposite sex, and they're framing dating as this financial power struggle, rather than this relational process in which we're both kind of meeting in the middle and getting to know each other," Romanoff said.

"We're really watching love shrink to fit people's budget," she added.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· May 14

Do you notice how Threads is missing entirely? We were posting there for a few months and didn't get a SINGLE REFERRAL. Totally dead for our purposes. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong? Anyway as far as ALL sources go here's the traffic profile for Typebar so far this year...

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· May 14

"Bluesky doesn't send anyone traffic" as some kind of axiomatic media truth is simply wrong. Bluesky is Typebar Magazine's #1 social referral source and the others are not even close.

graph of typebar magazine 2026 social referral sources. Bluesky has the most at 83.1%, with the next highest as Reddit (if you consider it "social media") at 5.2%.

X, Facebook, Instagram, Substack, LinkedIn, and Tumblr are all present but minimal.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· May 13

Found a marble chess set at the thrift store for $20. Also found this monstrosity

A hockey player in a New York islanders jersey shaped like a duck with a duck bill.

Matt Wolfbridge (read Typebar Magazine)@wolfbridge· May 11

This was the most killer line of the essay for me. Like eating a volley ball spike to the face hah.