The Newsletter Rebrand Nobody Asked For
or why I changed the name to Saturday Night Five...
When I started this Substack newsletter, I was trying to establish my name with the associated platform. That’s why I pushed seanmcdevitt.substack.com and seanmcdevitt.medium.com. It was an easy way to connect my writing with my name.
I had already set up seanmcdevitt.com as my identity site, so I wanted the other platforms to build off that.
After 30 weeks of posting, I wanted something different.
As you can see, I have rebranded my Substack from The Sean McDevitt Newsletter to Saturday Night Five. It’s a bit more than just a new name. With Saturday Night Five, my goal is to make a fresh statement about what my newsletter has become and what I want it to be.
The core remains the same: one essay that serves as the anchor. This is where I dig into whatever’s captured my attention that week, whether it’s cultural commentary, personal reflection, or something else entirely. The essay format allows for depth, nuance, and the kind of thinking-out-loud that makes a newsletter feel less like a marketing platform and more like a conversation.
However, with Saturday Night Five, I’m presenting four additional items that have been rattling around in my brain. This isn’t a link roundup of “things you should read” from across the internet. So, no more The Weekly Click. It’s not curated content designed to position me as a tastemaker or cultural gatekeeper. Instead, it’s something more intimate and, frankly, I think more interesting.
It’s a peek into my mental landscape as someone who’s paying attention to the world.
Those four additional items could be anything. A half-formed thought about something that caught my attention. A frustration with a news item. A quick note about a book, movie, or experience. A quote that I wanted to share. This is where the newsletter gets personal, where the relationship between us shifts from formal presentation to something closer to friends catching up over drinks.
The old format leaned on external links. Here’s what I read, and I think you should read it too. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, but it’s also crowded territory. Everyone with a newsletter is sharing links. The new format makes a different promise: this is what I’m actually thinking about. There might be links, but not necessarily.
I hope the name itself does some heavy lifting. “Saturday Night” suggests leisure, reflection, the end of the week when you finally have time to think about something other than what’s urgent. Saturday night (or Sunday morning) is when you can sit with ideas that don’t have immediate applications, when you can be curious without needing to be productive.
Five is specific enough to create a structure but flexible enough to allow variety. One essay plus four things. It’s memorable. It’s repeatable. More importantly, it creates an expectation I can meet week after week without becoming formulaic.
My goal isn’t just another Substack newsletter clogging your inbox. This is a weekly ritual: a specific time and place where a particular kind of thinking and sharing occurs.
We might be internet strangers, but we can be friendly strangers, right?
Now for the part where you come in. I’m seeking your feedback on three areas: the name, the format, and suggestions for improvement.
On the name: Does it communicate what the newsletter is about, or does it need explanation? Would it be better served as SaturdayNightFive.com or kept under my name? I’m leaning toward going with the new URL.
On the format: One essay plus four additional thoughts. Would you prefer more structure around what those four items are (such as always one article I read, one observation, one question, one recommendation)? Or is the freedom and unpredictability part of the appeal?
On making it better: What would make Saturday Night Five a better product? Would shorter essays work better, or is depth the point? Would themed weeks or months help build momentum, or would that constrain the format too much? I’ve never considered monetizing it, but I might. This one hit your inbox in the morning, but with the name change, does it make sense to be an evening newsletter?
What makes a newsletter interesting to me is the voice, the consistency, and the sense that there’s an actual human on the other end who’s thinking about things and wants to share those thoughts. Saturday Night Five is designed to deliver exactly that. Hope you like it.
Be seeing you.
Remarkably Bright Creatures audiobook
My wife has chided me for continually listening to podcasts focused on Illinois sports or politics. Guilty as charged.
To her point, I finally started Remarkably Bright Creatures on audiobook. My wife often finds new books via Instagram Reels. This particular title was among the recommendations and was specifically praised for its audiobook version. She loved the book and could not wait for me to listen to it so we could talk about it.
I currently have about five hours remaining. So far, it is delightful. I’m enjoying the narration quite a bit. Michael Urie is a standout here.
I have no idea where the story is headed, but I look forward to learning more.
Tank and Rebuild
With Spring Training on the horizon, Chaim Bloom and the St. Louis Cardinals finally moved Brendan Donovan to the Seattle Mariners in a three-way trade that yielded some prospects and cleared the way for Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker to prove their worth in 2026, and also cleared a spot for J.J. Wetherholt to make the show as well.
The Cardinals traded Donovan and received a bundle of five assets for their rebuild: three prospects drafted in the first and second rounds, plus two draft picks that give St. Louis six of the first 86 selections in the 2026 MLB Draft. The prospects are Jurrangelo Cijntje, a hard-throwing pitcher who needs work in the minors and to stop with the whole switch-pitcher thing, and outfielders Tai Peete and Colton Ledbetter, who, as I understand it, are still learning how to hit professional pitching.
I guess that’s a good return for two years of Donovan, who was an All-Star, but not really a star. I’m also guessing this completes the offseason moves with Donovan, Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado, and Willson Contreras all traded.
Bloom has lessened the payroll and broken up the infield logjam.
The only Cardinals players making $5 million or more in 2026 are pitcher Dustin May ($12 million) and outfielder Lars Nootbaar ($5.35 million). May is on a one-year deal with a mutual option, while Nootbaar has two years of team control. Both are trade candidates if they’re playing well in July and the Cardinals are out of the playoff picture (and they will be, and they will be traded, zero doubt).
The tank-and-rebuild process continues as the Cardinals look toward 2028, because it isn’t happening this year or even the following year. Plus, the strike is coming...
That Kind of Writing
Out of the blue, I was thinking of a comic book writer I loved as a kid. Not sure why. Jim Shooter passed away last summer. Cancer.
He was the first writer I ever recognized by name. As a kid flipping through my Dad’s old Silver Age comics, his stories stuck with me. Even then, something about his voice on the page just landed.
He was just 13 when he sent in stories for the Legion of Super-Heroes at DC Comics. At 14, he wrote the story in which Ferro Lad died, the first “real” death of a Legionnaire (although Lightning Lad had been believed dead for a while before), and introduced the Fatal Five.
Looking back, I think reading his stories helped me understand the role of the writer. Comics are known predominantly as a medium for artists, but if the story is crap, it ultimately doesn’t really matter how good the art is. A writer has to collaborate with the penciller to make magic.
Maybe someday I can get back to that kind of writing. But first… I need a story to tell.
Does the truth still matter?
John Green is a long-time video blogger with his brother Hank. He has an enormous following. John is a New York Times bestselling author and has numerous interests. If you want to go deeper, his Wikipedia page is a pretty good place to start. He isn’t a crackpot nor a partisan hack.
In this video, he spends a lot of time trying to figure out how to participate effectively in an information distribution system that prioritizes attention over accuracy. It is a short and sane perspective on what is happening, and I hope those who may think differently from me will watch.
