Tina Brown decided to write only on Monday afternoons. It’s a pretty revealing detail. The legendary editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker in the ’80s and ’90s joined Substack with some disdain. He’s not trying to reinvent journalism. He just wants to have fun.

Substack has other plans. And they are becoming an online phenomenon in their own right.

new shelter

The platform had been courting Brown for more than a year. His signature is a masterstroke: few names better encapsulate the golden age of paper magazines. This is also the latest move in a strategy aimed at turning the media landscape upside down.

The numbers speak for themselves. More than 30 writers in the politics and news categories on Substack each earn at least $1 million a year New York Times.

Trench 6 million invoices. ZetheusMehdi Hasan’s new medium after his departure MSNBCClose to 4 million. The total paying subscriber base exceeds 4 million. These are numbers that frighten many traditional media.

Of course timing This is no coincidence. The crisis in journalism is chronic, newsrooms continue to decline, and the ground is fertile for Substack’s proposition: editorial independence and direct connection with readers.

The last few weeks have been particularly busy for celebrity listings on the platform. In addition to Brown, commentator cnn VanJones. Also Jane Pratt, another cult editor. It’s a clear trend: Substack is looking for recognizable names. Strong personal brands. Voices with authority.

mass migration

The pattern is repeated. After layoffs cnnChris Cillizza joined the platform. It has almost 22,000 free subscribers and 3,000 paid subscribers. When Reporter closed, Tom LoBianco and Warren Rojas entered service 24sightNews. Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim have split up Intersection to find Leave Site News, It’s about to reach a quarter of a million subscribers. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The company was aiming for more.

In September 2023, Substack announced its intention to make the 2024 presidential election a “Substack election.”. It was a statement of intent and a strategic turn towards political content. It is a move calculated to fill the void left by Meta, which has been reducing the visibility of political discussions on its platforms for a while. In fact, political conversation on Instagram is almost non-existent compared to what it was during Facebook’s heyday.

HE timingAgain, it was very precise. Months ago, in April 2023, Elon Musk offered to acquire Substack. The offer came during a meeting with the platform’s CEO, Chris Best. Musk even suggested that Best could run the company as a result of the merger, sweetening the operation and making it more attractive to the vendor who would reap the benefits without losing control entirely.

Best rejected. Substack had its own plans.

The platform had recently developed Notes, an alternative to Twitter/X. It wanted to position itself as a space for reflective political debate.. An antidote to the toxicity of social media and gut opinions. Musk’s proposal would derail that plan. No matter: Notes was many people’s penultimate attempt to replace X, but without much success.

The tension between both companies is clearly visible. Substack co-founder McKenzie recently called Musk “a propagandist with more conflicts of interest than El Chapo.” Again, this is not just a dig: it is a statement of principles.

But the numbers raise disturbing questions.

Substack is still not profitable. It lost $22 million in 2021. Losses have narrowed but the company is still in the red. It has raised nearly $100 million and reached a valuation of over $650 million. It is not enough to reassure some investors who are demanding greater financial transparency.

The business model is simple: Substack takes 10% of subscription revenue. This is a lower percentage than other platforms, which generally revolve around the 30% dogma. This percentage should have a lower value than normal, but this also means that a very large amount of trading is required to be profitable.

Shadow of profitability

Company policies also cause certain conflicts. His staunch defense of freedom of expression caused a scandal in the face of such a respected media. Atlantic He revealed the existence of newsletters featuring Nazi symbols. Casey Newton, a well-known technology journalist, acquired his project from Substack. platform gamein conclusion. Heather Cox Richardson, who has 1.7 million subscribers, also said she was considering leaving.

But other writers are happy with it.

They particularly value technical support and internal referral network, which account for more than 30% of new paid subscriptions. The platform also facilitates discussions between subscribers. Many pay just to comment. An important detail: Explains how Substack not only sells content but also builds communities.

Conservative commentator Meghan McCain, who joined in October, sums it up well: She said she preferred Substack to X, where she received “terrible messages” about her family or appearance. The platform offers a more civil space for discussion.

Mehdi Hasan’s case is illustrative. after leaving MSNBCHe chose Substack to launch Zeteo. He sought assurances that pro-Palestinian speech would not be censored. The platform gave it to them. It currently has over 295,000 subscribers.

American voting guru Nate Silver is another success story. He doubled his prices before the election and his subscribers didn’t complain. Silver Bulletin It ranks third in the political rankings. He had technical problems with his forecasting model on election night, but that didn’t diminish his popularity.

The message is clear: There is life beyond traditional newsrooms.

But questions still remain.

• Is this model sustainable?
• ¿Can Substack turn its growing influence into a profitable business??
• Are they creating something new or just taking advantage of the traditional media crisis?

The platform’s co-founder, Hamish McKenzie, insists they could be profitable if they wanted to. They prefer to continue investing in growth. This is a typical Silicon Valley reaction. Time will tell whether this is wisdom or deception. Or don’t fool yourself.

Meanwhile, Tina Brown is preparing to write on Monday afternoons. And only on Monday afternoons. Maybe this is the real thermometer. When the stars of traditional journalism start to see Substack as an enjoyable hobby, something is changing in the industry.

For better or worse, the future of journalism may be written in a news release.

in Xataka | We are ashamed of the world, we save the internet

Featured image | Midjourney with Xataka, Substack