You may have seen or heard of Substack over the last few months and might have wondered what it is and why it is proving so popular?
In short, Substack is a subscription newsletter service, which originated in San Francisco, California.
However, it isnāt simply a return to old fashioned newsletters. Delving a little deeper, the platform provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure which allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. So, what does that give the end user? Well, if you have a favourite writer, (Dolly Alderton if you are listening ā please sign up), philanthropist, activist, or influencer and are keen to receive a newsletter filled with their latest musings direct to your inbox, at the same time each and every week, then Substack will likely be the place to find them very soon.
Authors can decide to make subscription to their newsletter free or paid, and to make specific posts publicly available to non-subscribers. Substack takes a 10 percent fee from subscription payments and advertising to users currently plays no role in revenue generation.
As of November 2021, the platform reported it had more than 500,000 paying subscribers, representing over one million subscriptions, and in January 2022 announced that it would begin private Beta testing video on its platform, so bigger things are on the horizon.
So why is the service proving so popular? First up, consumers are now well versed in subscription models for accessing their entertainment, thanks to services like Spotify, Netflix, and Xbox Game Pass. Subscriptions now exist for audiobooks, cosmetics, shoes, groceries, meals, supplements, and many other products and services so why not journalism?
This combined with the fact that the media industry has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with swathes of job cuts across the boards, much loved titles ceasing publication, and repeat restructures taking place within even the largest publishing houses, it is perhaps no surprise that a new media platform has been born in the form of newsletters, led by Substack.
Substackās founders claim to have launched the service because they were āfed up about the effects of the social-media dietā and wanted to provide an alternative.
While some are skeptical about whether the shift to old fashioned email newsletters will be long-lasting, others are optimistic that, this form of content delivery is here to stay and will offer more choice to readers.
Previously readers might follow a large media publication on social media, but, rarely, individual journalists. Now, as journalists are taking control of the distribution on Substack, Forbes reports that this is now changing with research revealing that readers have started to gravitate more towards the individual creator over the large media publications that employ them.Ā 66%Ā of journalists now say that their readers first followed them as journalists rather than their publications.
As such, if Substack is to succeed it needs to attract high-profile writers that readers want to sign up to. With that in mind, the company has set its sights firmly on the UK market, most notably with the recruitment of Farrah Storr, former editor-in-chief at Elle UK to be the new head of partnerships in the region, in November last year.
The UK writing community on Substack already includesĀ Salman Rushdie,Ā Chuck Palahniuk, and Jeanette Winterson. In addition, Dominic Cummings, and Suzanne Moore, all post political commentary via the platform.
In addition to featuring established writers, personalities, and commentators, the company says it is also on a mission to foster a new generation of writers through its community initiatives and fellowships such as Substack Grow and it is this element of the platform that encouraged Storr to join the company.
So, are there any downsides to the platform and can it compete with traditional journalistic outlets? In 2020, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube began restricting or removing accounts that they claim spread COVID-19 misinformation, which violates those platforms’ content policies. Some prominent authors of this content then moved to Substack.
In January 2022, the Centre for Countering Digital Hate criticised the company for allowing content that could be dangerous to public health, estimating it earned $2.5 million per year from the top five anti-vax authors alone, who have tens of thousands of subscribers. Likely in response to this criticism, the three founders then posted a blog affirming their commitment to minimal censorship. This suggests that it is unlikely that stringent checks and balances will be added to the platform any time soon unless forced to.
In contrast, the likes of Ofcom heavily regulate TV, radio, and now video on-demand services while the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)Ā is the independent regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. In addition, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently announced closer regulation on influencers that mid-declare paid-for content.
This regulation in addition to the multiple checks and balances put in place by editorial teams, sub-editors, and editors in chief at traditional media outlets strongly suggests UK consumers are still likely to be served up far more balanced and factually accurate content via traditional mediums for the foreseeable future.
So, while weād welcome a regular newsletter from Dolly Alderton landing in our inbox each week, we wonāt be turning our backs on our beloved print and digital magazines and newspapers any time soon.
