Substack wants to do more than just newsletters

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2024-10-07 17:30:08

Seven years since its launch, the newsletter platform Substack has consolidated its dominance of the independent news business. Now, it’s trying to position itself as something more: a central platform for paying creators of all kinds, untethered to the news cycle and beyond the tough-to-monetize medium of text.

The company’s accomplishments are remarkable: Its recommendation network is responsible for 50% of all subscriptions and 30% of paid subscriptions, offering a strong argument for why writers should use Substack rather than technically similar but smaller competitors like Ghost and Beehiiv. The company told Semafor that live coverage on Substack of major news events such as President Joe Biden leaving the presidential race and the presidential debates have spiked subscription revenue by millions for its publishers.

And while it’s lost a few high-profile creators over its refusal to kick fringe or offensive voices off the platform, it has added more and now dominates the attention of media elites and political junkies, with top channels spanning Bari Weiss’ Free Press and Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo, the Never-Trump site The Bulwark and the anti-establishment leftist outlet Drop Site News. When top journalists left the Washington Post and the Guardian in recent weeks, Substack was their obvious destination.