Veteran jewelry industry journalist Rob Bates has (mostly) stepped away from his long-standing role at JCK Magazine to launch an independent publication, The Jewelry Wire, a Substack-based newsletter delivering daily reporting, commentary, and industry discussion for the global jewelry trade.
Bates spent 28 years at JCK, where he became one of the industry’s most widely read reporters and commentators. Over a journalism career spanning nearly 35 years, he has also worked at National Jeweler, and has received 12 editorial awards, including the American Gem Society’s Triple Zero Award and two Jesse H. Neal Awards for excellence in business journalism.
His new venture will publish roughly four to five newsletters each week, combining original reporting with commentary, curated industry links, and contributions from voices across the trade.
Bates joins a small but growing number of jewelry professionals who have turned to Substack as a publishing platform. These include Monica McLaughlin’s Dearest, Marion Fasel (The Adventurine), Isis Brennan (The Foyer), and Lauren Kiehna (The Court Jeweller). Most of these efforts, however, lean toward commentary, history, or consumer-facing storytelling—leaving relatively little in the way of consistent, trade-focused news coverage. That gap is where The Jewelry Wire appears positioned to operate.
“The Jewelry Wire’s bread and butter will be supplying you with the latest news as clearly, concisely, and honestly as possibly. But we’ll also include a lot of analysis, so people understand not just what is happening, but why it’s happening.”
“It’s definitely crazy times out there,” says Bates, “but we’re going to do our best to make sense of it all.”
While the structure reflects a modern newsletter format, the approach is rooted in the same curiosity that defined Bates’ long tenure covering the industry.
“I’ve always enjoyed talking to different people in the industry, learning about the industry, and then trying to synthesize all those perspectives,” he said. “I’m also a very curious person who likes to understand what’s going on behind the scenes.”
That curiosity now extends into a new role—not just as a journalist, but as an independent operator.
“It’s been a crazy amount of work, much more than I anticipated,” Bates told the Roskin Gem News. “I’m definitely a little frazzled—and it’s only been a week. But having worked for corporations my whole life, it gives me a lot more understanding of what it’s like running your own business. Which is great, since most of the people in this industry actually do that.”
Editorially, The Jewelry Wire aims to move beyond well-worn debates and toward more practical, forward-looking discussions.
“I’ll probably give more of my own ‘takes,’ but the idea is to start a dialogue about the industry’s problems that is open and honest,” he said. “So it won’t just be about arguing about, say, natural versus lab-grown—which is played out—but understanding how the consumer perceives both, where the market is going, and what that looks like in the future.”
Each edition is designed to be efficient and comprehensive—a quick but complete briefing for industry professionals.
“The goal is to give people all the information they need to know about the industry in an easily digestible form, with a lot of quick headlines,” Bates said. “So people can start their day with it and feel that there’s not much that happened in the world of jewelry that they didn’t know. They’ll know exactly what people in the industry are talking about that day.”
He compares the format to a familiar broadcast promise—condensed for today’s pace.
“It’s like that old slogan: ‘You give us 22 minutes, we’ll give you the world.’ That’s what I want to do with the jewelry world—except this will take maybe 10 minutes.”
The publication is currently free to subscribe, with an optional paid tier planned for future phases that will include additional exclusive content. Bates will also continue to co-host the JCK podcast, The Jewelry District, and contribute editorial coverage to JCK alongside the launch.
“I’ve reported on the jewelry business for nearly 35 years,” he said. “This is an opportunity to take that experience and build the kind of publication I’ve always wanted to create.”
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Rob Bates is also a published author, having written four Diamond District Mysteries: A Murder is Forever, Murder is not a Girl’s Best Friend, Slay it with Diamonds, and Making a Killing in Diamonds, all available here.
