Hamish, I can see small town newspapers benefitting from partnering with Substack but not larger newspapers. For instance my local newspaper the Daily News of Newburyport, MA changes over $300 a year for a subscription, which no one can afford. However, if they were publishing on Substack they might actually find some regrowth with local readers.
It makes so much sense. My local newspaper trolls for readers on FB and everything including Obits are behind the firewall. People constantly complain about the cost of a subscription.
Please consider approaching Hakai Magazine. They will cease publishing at the end of this year. Hakai is primarily a coastal science publication with a literary flair. Brandon Keim is an example of one of their contributors. I found his Substack via a mention in Hakai.
Lots of wins there for everyone, including readers and subscribers. And it wouldn't hurt for the MSM to have some competition. Substack is already getting a reputation as a place where fine writers gather. It could well become the alternative to the corporate recklessness we're seeing today.
Hi - great post - I work for an MSM regional in Birmingham UK and also now have a Substack which is independent of the main outlet - my time funded by my employer, who funds support and takes the revenue, small tho that is right now. I love the idea you explore here of someone like me splitting my hours formally between the two projects - lots of food for thought.
Interesting to see The Bulwark's substack page, Hamish, and how it looks different to a standard Substack page with more tabs at the top. Having started my own outdoor adventure blog on Substack, I'm also considering moving my environmental consultancy website across.
A strong argument. However, I think many major companies with their own internal IT systems might need more proof here: "Substack takes care of all customer support, so if a reader or subscriber writes in with a tech issue, the publisher doesn’t have to spend their time solving it."
My Substack was recently hacked. Nothing bad happened, other than that someone launched a new Substack under my name (I started getting all the automated welcome messages). I changed the password and then deleted the bogus new newsletter. However, it took FIVE days for customer support to respond. What's the evidence that Substack is actually staffed to handle media at scale, considering that technical support for both readers and publishers will dramatically increase?
If it's not clear, I ask this with love for the platform and hope that it will succeed.
Hamish, as I've said before, Substack is replacing the painfully slow and poorly read world of the literary magazine that used to find and celebrate emerging, established and worthy literary voices. For that reason, and as I say, on my site: "Why I am on Substack": Substack offers not socialization but intimacy—that’s its gift. I say, Hurrah for you! ~ Mary
I recommend adding an option to (lots of) subscription tiers. Tier 1 gets you this, Tier 2 gets you (eg) the crossword, Tier 3 etc. I keep my main publication off Substack because it only really works as a PDF (lots of charts and tables), is waaay more expensive than the snippets I publish here. I would like to offer sections of it for different prices but that doesn’t exist.
I have been operating a political website since the late 2000s and would never move it all to Substack.
The search function on Substack is (to put it mildly) terrible, which would be a huge drawback to moving any publisher entirely to this platform. It would immediately become much harder for readers to find my work.
It's fascinating to see how the media landscape is changing just as OpenAI announces SearchGPT, a prototype that could revolutionize online search. Could this be a key moment where traditional media and cutting-edge AI find new ways to work together and succeed?
I am in total agreement here, Hamish… However, I do think you’re missing a big part of the market cutting out poets… I have seen so many poets migrate from Insta to Substack… it seems it could be a worthwhile endeavour. One slight note though - the poetry block needs looking at… it doesn’t keep structure at all, I’m constantly having to go into a post after publication to amend line breaks and format. Thank you! 🌸🩷🌸
In my view the legacy media publishers failed to grasp the opportunities that 'the internet' brought them 20 years ago and history is repeating itself. Of course many of those once 'big' media companies are now in not much more than survival mode... I wrote this recently about where I feel things went wrong. https://stuartbaillie.substack.com/p/and-then-the-greed-set-in?r=2dav26
But the traditional media now has the biggest and most authorative websites in the world! And don't forget, that around 350 million newspapers a day are sold across the world ... Then add on magazines etc etc ... Publishing is a major business still ... And it's been accused of being on its last legs since I became part of it decades ago... Right now substack doesn't seem to be the right fit for conglomerates, it may become the right fit soon though. I am dyed in the wool trad media and substack supports my needs beyond my daily grind!
Hamish, I can see small town newspapers benefitting from partnering with Substack but not larger newspapers. For instance my local newspaper the Daily News of Newburyport, MA changes over $300 a year for a subscription, which no one can afford. However, if they were publishing on Substack they might actually find some regrowth with local readers.
This is something I’m really hoping we’ll among local/regional news organizations.
It makes so much sense. My local newspaper trolls for readers on FB and everything including Obits are behind the firewall. People constantly complain about the cost of a subscription.
@Hamish McKenzie
You know what! I'll convince the other 8 muses to join!
Well done, Hamish….
Slowly and surely they will come. Then quickly and suddenly.
Greetings Hamish,
Please consider approaching Hakai Magazine. They will cease publishing at the end of this year. Hakai is primarily a coastal science publication with a literary flair. Brandon Keim is an example of one of their contributors. I found his Substack via a mention in Hakai.
Thanks for your consideration.
And thanks for the wonders of Substack🌱
Lots of wins there for everyone, including readers and subscribers. And it wouldn't hurt for the MSM to have some competition. Substack is already getting a reputation as a place where fine writers gather. It could well become the alternative to the corporate recklessness we're seeing today.
Hi - great post - I work for an MSM regional in Birmingham UK and also now have a Substack which is independent of the main outlet - my time funded by my employer, who funds support and takes the revenue, small tho that is right now. I love the idea you explore here of someone like me splitting my hours formally between the two projects - lots of food for thought.
Interesting to see The Bulwark's substack page, Hamish, and how it looks different to a standard Substack page with more tabs at the top. Having started my own outdoor adventure blog on Substack, I'm also considering moving my environmental consultancy website across.
A strong argument. However, I think many major companies with their own internal IT systems might need more proof here: "Substack takes care of all customer support, so if a reader or subscriber writes in with a tech issue, the publisher doesn’t have to spend their time solving it."
My Substack was recently hacked. Nothing bad happened, other than that someone launched a new Substack under my name (I started getting all the automated welcome messages). I changed the password and then deleted the bogus new newsletter. However, it took FIVE days for customer support to respond. What's the evidence that Substack is actually staffed to handle media at scale, considering that technical support for both readers and publishers will dramatically increase?
If it's not clear, I ask this with love for the platform and hope that it will succeed.
Hamish, as I've said before, Substack is replacing the painfully slow and poorly read world of the literary magazine that used to find and celebrate emerging, established and worthy literary voices. For that reason, and as I say, on my site: "Why I am on Substack": Substack offers not socialization but intimacy—that’s its gift. I say, Hurrah for you! ~ Mary
I recommend adding an option to (lots of) subscription tiers. Tier 1 gets you this, Tier 2 gets you (eg) the crossword, Tier 3 etc. I keep my main publication off Substack because it only really works as a PDF (lots of charts and tables), is waaay more expensive than the snippets I publish here. I would like to offer sections of it for different prices but that doesn’t exist.
I have been operating a political website since the late 2000s and would never move it all to Substack.
The search function on Substack is (to put it mildly) terrible, which would be a huge drawback to moving any publisher entirely to this platform. It would immediately become much harder for readers to find my work.
It's fascinating to see how the media landscape is changing just as OpenAI announces SearchGPT, a prototype that could revolutionize online search. Could this be a key moment where traditional media and cutting-edge AI find new ways to work together and succeed?
I am in total agreement here, Hamish… However, I do think you’re missing a big part of the market cutting out poets… I have seen so many poets migrate from Insta to Substack… it seems it could be a worthwhile endeavour. One slight note though - the poetry block needs looking at… it doesn’t keep structure at all, I’m constantly having to go into a post after publication to amend line breaks and format. Thank you! 🌸🩷🌸
You will need to fix your search function first:
https://substack.com/@oboluspress/note/c-63247585
In my view the legacy media publishers failed to grasp the opportunities that 'the internet' brought them 20 years ago and history is repeating itself. Of course many of those once 'big' media companies are now in not much more than survival mode... I wrote this recently about where I feel things went wrong. https://stuartbaillie.substack.com/p/and-then-the-greed-set-in?r=2dav26
But the traditional media now has the biggest and most authorative websites in the world! And don't forget, that around 350 million newspapers a day are sold across the world ... Then add on magazines etc etc ... Publishing is a major business still ... And it's been accused of being on its last legs since I became part of it decades ago... Right now substack doesn't seem to be the right fit for conglomerates, it may become the right fit soon though. I am dyed in the wool trad media and substack supports my needs beyond my daily grind!