What it’s like to launch a newsletter on Substack

Last night, I launched a newsletter on Substack: Money Talk, on the highs and lows of personal finance.

It’s the first time I’ve ventured into writing about money in more than a decade as a journalist — you may have seen my byline in food and travel articles for CNN, Lonely Planet, The Independent, and many others in the past.

In my first post and mailout — sent to a small selection of close friends, colleagues and PRs I’ve worked with during my career — I detailed some of the reasons behind my decision to pivot so far from my normal beat.

Here, I’m going to discuss what that process was like.

Why a newsletter

I’ve been thinking about newsletters as a medium for a while, having seen some excellent ones out there. Sian Meades-Williams’ Freelance Writing Jobs comes to mind, but there are many other brilliant ones.

Several things put me off.

First, I already have a couple of blogs (In Pursuit of Food and Culture Explorer, if you’re interested), now largely neglected because I simply don’t have the time to write more than a couple of times a year outside the day job. How is a newsletter any different?

Second, newsletters feel weirdly retro. They’re like the dinosaurs of the 90s that people automatically banish to spam. So will anyone actually want to read mine?