Look Out Substack, Facebook and Twitter Launching Newsletters
15 million reasons the social media giants are diving into the newsletter space
Yesterday, Hamish McKenzie sent out his Substack Newsletter to say Facebook and Twitter are coming for Substack.
Of course they are.
According to Hamish, there are more than 500,000 paid subscriptions across Substack, and the top 10 writers collectively make over $15 million a year.
He ought to know. He’s the co-founder of Substack.
Founded in 2017, Substack lets writers set up a newsletter, free. Not free up to a certain number and not free for 30 days but free forever.
Plus, you can set up a paid newsletter. Substack will bill your customers, pay you your earnings, host your list and and host your newsletter content — all for the sum of 10% of your earnings. Servers aren’t free, after all. Stripe will take another 3%. The rest is yours.
Perhaps most empowering of all, Substack promises to supports its writers in pursuing tough stories. Its legal program — called Substack Defender — offers writers access to top-notch lawyers who provide advice on legal uncertainty or complexity related to their writing.
