The Ledger.

About The Ledger

A slow magazine about fast tools.

We publish long, carefully edited essays about the software we live inside: how it is designed, who builds it, and what it does to our attention.

The Ledger started in 2019 as a monthly letter to a few hundred friends. Today it is read by tens of thousands of designers, engineers and curious people around the world, and it is still funded entirely by its readers.

We publish slowly on purpose. Every piece is reported, edited twice and fact-checked before it goes out. When we get something wrong, we correct it in public at the bottom of the essay.

Founded in Lisbon

2019

Essays published

140+

Newsletter readers

38k

Ads or trackers

0

Writers

  • Jonah Reyes

    Editor-in-chief

    Jonah founded The Ledger in 2019 after a decade designing productivity software. He writes about defaults, attention and the ethics of interfaces.

  • Ana Ferreira

    Deputy editor

    Ana edits our craft and design coverage. Before The Ledger she ran a small type foundry in Porto and still sets every headline by hand first.

  • Priya Nair

    Senior writer

    Priya is an engineer turned writer who covers infrastructure, documentation and the people who keep old systems running.

  • Tomás Lindgren

    Contributing writer

    Tomás writes about open source economics and work culture from a cabin outside Umeå, usually by the light of one very good lamp.

Masthead

  • Jonah Reyes

    Editor-in-chief

  • Ana Ferreira

    Deputy editor

  • Hana Sato

    Art director

  • Leo Mbeki

    Copy chief

What we believe

  1. Readers, not advertisers.

    We have never run an ad and never will. Members pay for everything.

  2. Fewer, better pieces.

    We would rather publish one essay you remember than ten you skim.

  3. Pay every writer.

    Outside contributors earn a flat fee per essay, agreed before they start writing.

Write for The Ledger

We are always looking for new voices. Read our guidelines and send a short pitch.

Send a pitch