Substack, The Rise of the Newsletter Economy

Substack is an online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers and earn money from their work2 Substack was founded in 2017 by Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi.

Substack’s growth was so fast because it tapped into the demand for independent and niche content, as well as the desire of writers to have more control and ownership over their creative work. Substack also benefited from the decline of traditional media outlets and the rise of online communities. Substack offers a simple and user-friendly interface, a network effect that helps writers find new readers, and a low-cost business model that takes only 10% of subscription revenue.

Some of the latest news about Substack are

Substack announced that it had more than 500,000 paying subscribers, representing over one million subscriptions, as of November 2021.

Substack launched a new feature called Substack Boost, which allows writers to receive one-time payments from their readers in addition to recurring subscriptions.

Substack faced criticism from some writers and activists who accused the platform of enabling hate speech, misinformation, and harassment by some of its popular authors. Substack defended its content moderation policy as “lightweight” and based on the principles of free speech and editorial independence.