Substack is only doomed to fail if mainstream news outlets start doing actual journalism again. Given the likelihood of that happening, I would say Substack is going to be just fine.
I subscribe to several writers on Substack. But, I want a more structured approach to acquiring the information I need to form my opinions. I like to think I am open to new ideas like anyone else. But, I also understand human nature and our natural inclinations to gravitate towards ideas we agree with. The ala carte approach of Substack concerns me that it essentially will become a popularity contest with writers’ desire for more ‘subscriptions’ (and money) eventually winning out as well as readers naturally falling into echo chambers. Something I like about UnHerd, and to a lesser extent The Dispatch, is that for lack of a better analogy, they have what I will call publishers and editors assembling contributors and doing a bit of screening with the goal of an overall vision. Professional journalism, I guess. I’m certain that without this element, I will be missing out on things I should be looking at. I can only subscribe to (and drop dollars on) so many newsletters. I want (and I think need) some thoughtful people upstream of the writers with an overall vision.
Saul D
2 years ago
Substack has the potential to make journalism competitive again – chasing scoops, not re-writing corporate press releases for the powers-that-be. The in-fighting will be part of the competition, and the better journalists will find themselves headhunted by media businesses that need clicks and something different to say.
Much of what I find on Substack (and Medium) are papers that have some depth to the stories. Of course some writers may have a bias (more so on Medium) but they assemble information in useful ways. Some seem to be a bit excessive in making their viewpoint treating us to too long pieces, but worth the time.
Norman Powers
2 years ago
The attacks on Substack can be summed up very simply: legions of ideologically identikit journalists are outraged to discover that journalism/writing isn’t inherently a low paid profession, only that their kind of writing is. Leftists-telling-people-what-to-think is a saturated market but the dominance of these people in newsrooms is so extreme, many of them have internalized the idea that to be a journalist is to be low paid. Then they see people, sometimes former colleagues who they thought they had successfully cancelled forever, turning up and earning more than the average CEO. Yglesias, a co-founder of Vox who left because despite literally founding the company he was being cancelled by his own staff, supposedly could be bringing in $775k/yr right now. Too bad: he didn’t believe Substack when they told him how much he could earn on the platform, and took an advance for “only” $335k/yr.
If people who get cancelled immediately pop up elsewhere with a new platform that makes them extremely rich, cancellation stops being a useful weapon. Easy to see why that makes the left furious.
Ironically, some of the highest earning writers on Substack are ex-leftists. Some of them can’t quite admit to this yet. But their writing is something you just cannot get via regular newspaper subscriptions because it:
Deeply engages with the readership. Scott Alexander reads all the comments on his posts although there are hundreds each time, and we know this because he often selects high quality comments and elevates them into more posts. Good luck engaging with any normal journalist BTL, even here at Unherd that doesn’t happen.
Viciously attacks the low quality of conventional journalism, often naming specific examples. Matt Taibbi is a good example of this genre, as is Glenn Greenwald. Obviously, newspapers won’t publish that stuff because it’s a direct attack on the people and their worldview. Substack is a tech firm and doesn’t care if people criticize journalists.
Is able to, at least for now, express politically incorrect opinions. Substack is still in the early-days stage of a startup before leftists start attacking and taking it over from the inside.
The rage against Substack in the end is rage that the sort of writing people want is writing that is rational, treats readers with respect, and that hates journalists.
They “Rage, rage against the night” because winter is coming to many journalists in the post Trump twilight…
GA Woolley
2 years ago
Traditional journalism, where a few slightly better educated, more articulate, and self-important people report and pontificate on any thing and everything, is past its sell-by date. You only need look at the coverage of the pandemic: journalists with not an iota of knowledge, expertise, experience, or understanding of health, medicine, science, emergency planning, or high level decision-making claimed to be ‘holding the government to account’, driven almost exclusively by antipathy to Johnson because of Brexit. The public saw through it, but the MSM is still astounded that Johnson’s ratings remain high. Then look at the comments columns. The MSM has lost the plot so much that its comments sections are almost totally closed down, or so heavily moderated as to be pointless. Social media started the migration away from the MSM. If journalism doesn’t begin to offer something more worthwhile than the same old cabal of English, Classics, and Journalism graduates can provide, it deserves to fail.
B Smith
2 years ago
So basically Substack is the same as most other professions – the best and most established writers earn the most money. Doesn’t sound like failure to me.
rick stubbs
2 years ago
The most apt characterization of Substack I have seen thus far…
Substack is only doomed to fail if mainstream news outlets start doing actual journalism again. Given the likelihood of that happening, I would say Substack is going to be just fine.
Hear! Hear!
I subscribe to several writers on Substack. But, I want a more structured approach to acquiring the information I need to form my opinions. I like to think I am open to new ideas like anyone else. But, I also understand human nature and our natural inclinations to gravitate towards ideas we agree with. The ala carte approach of Substack concerns me that it essentially will become a popularity contest with writers’ desire for more ‘subscriptions’ (and money) eventually winning out as well as readers naturally falling into echo chambers. Something I like about UnHerd, and to a lesser extent The Dispatch, is that for lack of a better analogy, they have what I will call publishers and editors assembling contributors and doing a bit of screening with the goal of an overall vision. Professional journalism, I guess. I’m certain that without this element, I will be missing out on things I should be looking at. I can only subscribe to (and drop dollars on) so many newsletters. I want (and I think need) some thoughtful people upstream of the writers with an overall vision.
Substack has the potential to make journalism competitive again – chasing scoops, not re-writing corporate press releases for the powers-that-be. The in-fighting will be part of the competition, and the better journalists will find themselves headhunted by media businesses that need clicks and something different to say.
Much of what I find on Substack (and Medium) are papers that have some depth to the stories. Of course some writers may have a bias (more so on Medium) but they assemble information in useful ways. Some seem to be a bit excessive in making their viewpoint treating us to too long pieces, but worth the time.
The attacks on Substack can be summed up very simply: legions of ideologically identikit journalists are outraged to discover that journalism/writing isn’t inherently a low paid profession, only that their kind of writing is. Leftists-telling-people-what-to-think is a saturated market but the dominance of these people in newsrooms is so extreme, many of them have internalized the idea that to be a journalist is to be low paid. Then they see people, sometimes former colleagues who they thought they had successfully cancelled forever, turning up and earning more than the average CEO.
Yglesias, a co-founder of Vox who left because despite literally founding the company he was being cancelled by his own staff, supposedly could be bringing in $775k/yr right now. Too bad: he didn’t believe Substack when they told him how much he could earn on the platform, and took an advance for “only” $335k/yr.
If people who get cancelled immediately pop up elsewhere with a new platform that makes them extremely rich, cancellation stops being a useful weapon. Easy to see why that makes the left furious.
Ironically, some of the highest earning writers on Substack are ex-leftists. Some of them can’t quite admit to this yet. But their writing is something you just cannot get via regular newspaper subscriptions because it:
The rage against Substack in the end is rage that the sort of writing people want is writing that is rational, treats readers with respect, and that hates journalists.
Yes.
They “Rage, rage against the night” because winter is coming to many journalists in the post Trump twilight…
Traditional journalism, where a few slightly better educated, more articulate, and self-important people report and pontificate on any thing and everything, is past its sell-by date. You only need look at the coverage of the pandemic: journalists with not an iota of knowledge, expertise, experience, or understanding of health, medicine, science, emergency planning, or high level decision-making claimed to be ‘holding the government to account’, driven almost exclusively by antipathy to Johnson because of Brexit. The public saw through it, but the MSM is still astounded that Johnson’s ratings remain high. Then look at the comments columns. The MSM has lost the plot so much that its comments sections are almost totally closed down, or so heavily moderated as to be pointless. Social media started the migration away from the MSM. If journalism doesn’t begin to offer something more worthwhile than the same old cabal of English, Classics, and Journalism graduates can provide, it deserves to fail.
So basically Substack is the same as most other professions – the best and most established writers earn the most money. Doesn’t sound like failure to me.
The most apt characterization of Substack I have seen thus far…