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Can we make money on Substack et al?

Nika Talbot

NIKA TALBOT thanked the Branch “for asking me to speak on my favourite subject which is entrepreneurial journalism and new publishing opportunities” at the February meeting.

Substack says it now has more than three million paid subscribers, up from two million paid subscribers last year among 35 million total active subscriptions then. “I would not categorise Substack as a newsletter platform any more: it's a now a subscription platform for creators. You can now do video, and podcasts, and write a newsletter that is also a blog...”

Substack allows you to offer work for free if you wish: or you can turn on paid subscriptions. It doesn't charge you to post work, but it takes a 10 per cent cut of income from subscriptions, and its payment platform Stripe takes another 2.9 per cent of credit card transactions or 0.5 per cent of recurring transactions.

The week before the meeting the Press Gazette reported that more than 50 Substack authors are earning over $500,000 a year – among other reports in its “now quite comprehensive” coverage of Substack. The Press Gazette itself has a free newsletter on the platform.

Also, Nika see companies coming on to Substack “to talk directly to their audiences”.

Farrah Storr, then Head of Writer Partnerships for Substack UK, came to talk to the February 2022 Branch meeting. Before taking that job Farrah edited Elle and Cosmopolitan. She promotes Substack as “a media empire in the palm of your hand”.

Nika says that “interestingly, I see old magazine editors coming on to the platform. For example Trish Halpin, who has edited Marie Claire, Red, More! and New Woman, now produces PostcardsFromMidLife with Lorraine Candy, late of Elle.

Nika had just started up a “local meet-up” of other journalists who are on Substack. The platform has introduced an internal social media tool that it calls “Notes” – and Nika sees more and more journalists appearing on that. Such tools offer “a really supportive community,” Nika says. Notes “is like Twitter, but you have some good conversations on there.” It also works as an app “so you don't have to have all these notifications coming into your email”. There is also “a WhatsApp-like thing for private chats with your readers and others”.

The great challenge of making money on Substack, Nika says, “is converting free subscribers to paid. The company says that 5 per cent to 10 per cent is a good conversion rate – but I would say that 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent is more likely.

“You need to be really clear what you are offering to paid subscribers. People don't just want more, they want access – Zoom calls perhaps; offering personal writing advice or guest speakers.”

Competitors

Substack's main competitor, Nika says, is beehiiv - “another American company. Substack feels quite soft and beehiiv has a very startup tech business flavour. Content there seems 'AI' focused. The hugely ambitious young chief executive is now trying to get more journalists on his platform.”

Beehiiv charges a monthly fee but, Nika says, “has a generous free introductory offer.” It has an open applications programming interface (API) so plug-in features that are more technically advanced than Substack's facilities are likely to emerge.

Nika has had “fantastic feedback” on it. It has its own advertising system – so “you potentially could make a lot more money if you're willing to have ads on your pages.” People “are also bringing ads to Substack”.

Nika likes the community and support on Substack, though. “If had the hours I would publish on both platforms and compare them.”

Then there's Mailchimp, which was originally seen as a tool for distributing marketing emails and “where you have to pay when you send more than 2500 messages a month.

Nika notes that Mill Media – whose Joshi Herrmann spoke to the Branch in June last year – has left SS and gone over to ghost.org which is open-source and non-profit, “but lacks community features”.

And Medium “is still there – people are still posting articles but are hostage to its algorithms and systems.” The focus “seems mostly to be on publications”.

LinkedIn “can be good or getting people over to your list” but “you don't own the content you post there and and you can't download it.”

Finally, Nika “has used WordPress for years to build a small personal website”. WordPress now has a newsletter plugin.

For more, see Nika's slides, linked below

Questions

A member asked how you are covered for libel on these platforms. Nika replied that “you have to have your own personal policy – the NUJ offers one.” Serial editor Tina Brown advises having a fact-checker.

A member wants to set up a WordPress blog for local news and local debate, covering councils and police and NHS trusts? She finds these platforms “too global – can we do that without having to pay these US companies?” How would she put feelers out for others who may be interested? Nika “would use FaceBook” for that.

Nika Talbot's slides