Substack Is Having a Moment—Again. But Time Is Running Out

Before June 8, Skilled and respected ABC News television journalist Terry Muran was not a family name or a political thunderstorm. When Muran suddenly changed X posts Donald Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller was “world -class hater”, and then made an addition that the President was also an hater. (The Post Was later taken down) Suspended, then dismissedThe Muran was left in an action though. On June 8, he started writing in the Substack.

Muran was joining a movement based on a dream: journalists could start a Substack Newsletter and earn subscription fees that could match or exceed their previous salary. And they will be editorially free! There is no editor to screw the copy, there is no censorship from the boss when advertisers complain, when you say that the US president is an hated, no corporate overlord to dismiss you. Substack says that some people are really dreaming. CEO Chris Best is proud recently In a speech Its users had a “over 50” of revenue for a million dollars.

More journalists receive such as Push Beyond their jobs, get upset with their authorities, or just want to breathe the cool air of independence, now to them which seems to be an effective escape hatch. Many of them have been taking advantage of it recently. Jeff Bezos has been well for the Substack: Recent Separate Popular Popular Popular Popular Popular Vocabulary Writer Jennifer Rubin has led the Washington Post Editorial Page Democracy Start a publication called ContractorianAnd the censored editorial post cartoonist Ann Telnes Revealed now Substack as well. Former MSNBC Host Mehdi Hasan started his own publication. Even Chuck Todd is gone.

You may be tempted to think that alternative revolution is shaking the foundations of journalism, agreeing with it Substack star Emily Sundberg The leaders of this Newsroom should exclude their doors to prevent more errors everywhere. Well, not so fast. The Substack Model can work very well for a few but it is not easy to match salary and salary. Readers have to pay a high price for a voice that enjoyed a publication that once they subscribed. And the authors need to be accustomed to the idea that the width of their knowledge is limited to a small percentage of the patrons. Is the Substack sustainable to address the general audience?

Just last week or of, a cluster of critics shows that the platform may be on the ground. It started when Eric New Advent – to monitor his own successful Substack – the arrival of recent big names of celebrly substitutes and revealed that the platform told investors it was Earns $ 45 million in a yearThe He claimed it was looking for a new investment round that the company is worth $ 700 million. (Substack has not confirmed these numbers))

However, then Dylan Bayiers Look at these numbers And surprised whether the evaluation of the line below was actually lower than the previous rounds. Like other critics, bayers also complained that once you passed some of the true big earners, the platform was full in the lower middle age: “The truth is most of the subtack content is annoying, amateur or bass.” He wrote. His conclusion was that the Substack was a media company that was trying to be valuable as a technology company, which is a familiar failed point for similar companies. (Wired itself Failed to an IPO That is why.)

Anna Mary Cox, who once enjoyed blogging fame as WinKTY, EvenHis newsletter writes that the Substack is “unstable as SpaceX launch.” He was not fascinated by the more recent arrival of the name writer. “How many Terry Morans have places for?” He wrote. “Even for a dozen Terry Morans, is there public hunger, everyone is independently in his newsletter, independently in the Terry Maran-in-in-in-orgater?”

Cox subscriptions are mentioning fatigue, which I think about popping up a sign-up page while opening a new Substack each time. Generally, Substack professionals request monthly fees $ 5-10 or annual rates for $ 50-150. Usually the contents are at a free level but journalists who are hoping to save the at least part of their livelihoods for the at least part of the alternative to save good things for the salary customers. This is a horrible quality proposal compared to subscribing to full publications. After leaving the Atlantic, the famous author Derek Thompson Starting a Substack Spend $ 80 in a year – it is one paisa more than the digital subscription of magazine that he just kept! (Atlantic Will probably spend $ 300,000 To replace him with someone else.) It doesn’t take much of the subscriptions that match the cost of the New York Times, which probably have 100 journalists like Substack writers and you get the sound of booting.