Substack is becoming the subscription layer of the internet
Substack is becoming the subscription layer of the internet
PLUS: There's an entire cottage industry of social media influencers that specialize in content theft.
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Quick hits
Quick hits is a roundup of industry news I find interesting. Each item includes an article link followed by my own short analysis.
[HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: How TikTok Can Make (or Break) L.A.’s Restaurants] The TikTok algorithm has become incredibly adept at matching restaurant review videos with local audiences, so much so that it's becoming a common occurrence for a restaurant to be swarmed with around-the-block lines whenever a positive review goes viral.
[FORBES: Forbes' First-Ever Creator Upfronts To Showcase Those Driving The Creator Economy] This is interesting. Forbes is launching its own upfronts event specifically geared toward creators. It's basically an opportunity for creators and marketers to get in a room together and forge long term ad partnerships, similar to how the TV upfronts allow broadcast networks to pitch advertisers on their upcoming shows.
[WSJ: James Patterson Launches on Substack in Search of an Unfiltered Outlet] It seems pretty clear that Substack is quickly becoming the subscription layer of the internet — the place where creators who aren't attached to a larger media entity go when they want to sell paywalled content to fans. This trend is only accelerating as the platform begins to generate its own network effects via Notes and its Recommendations feature. Substack is striking a careful balance by allowing creators to both own their audiences and benefit from the distribution of a social network. There's a reason that already-established creators who can afford to build and maintain their own websites are choosing the Substack route instead, even with its 10% commission on sales.
[NYT: What Should a Music Magazine Be in the TikTok Era? Pitchfork Alumni Have an Idea.] I always love it when journalist coworkers peel off to launch their own independent publication. It's basically a recognition that they were producing the majority of the value for their employer and yet were reaping a tiny portion of the revenue.
[NYT: John F. Kennedy Jr.’s 1990s-Era Magazine Is Back, With a QAnon Twist] This is bizarre. George magazine, a quasi-high brow glossy that was published briefly in the 90s, has been resurrected by a far-right crank. Apparently it’s because QAnon conspiracy theorists believe JFK Jr — the magazine’s original editor — is still alive.
[ROLLING STONE: Ironmouse Is Twitch’s Top Streamer, But She Doesn’t Know Why You’re Watching] Some elements of internet culture are just so alien to me that I can't even begin to understand their appeal. This is one of them. I tried to watch a few minutes of this "Vtuber" who has millions of fans and the only emotion I could muster was confusion.
How Block Club Chicago reached 20,000 paying subscribers
Layoffs in the local news sector are, sadly, a regular occurrence, but three Chicago journalists decided they weren’t going down without a fight.
In November 2017, the news startup DNA Info laid off its entire staff, and it was only a few months later that three of its editors launched a Kickstarter that raised over $183,000; they used that capital to launch Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit that seeks to put a journalist in each of the city’s neighborhoods.
Flash forward six years, and Block Club has a robust news gathering operation that’s funded by 20,000 paying subscribers, foundation support, and a growing advertising business. In a recent interview, co-founder Stephanie Lulay walked me through the site’s launch strategy, its unique approach to neighborhood-based reporting, and why she thinks Block Club’s model can be replicated all across the US:
I would say like the Kickstarter was the pivotal moment. I remember having internal spirited disagreements amongst us co-founders about how much because, you know, on Kickstarter, you have to raise a certain amount or you don't get the money. Right. we had a lot of debate about what our minimum raise should be. And I remember, I think we set it at $25,000, right? That first day, we surpassed that within three hours. And within 36 hours, we had raised $100,000 and promised to hire a sixth reporter because of that. Just seeing that enormous reaction out of the gates from people all across the city. And there was huge buzz around it too. Like we were on a ton of TV stations, like just all of the media was writing about it. National media started to pick up the story and listen, it's a good story. We were laid off and we dusted ourselves off and got back to work, you know? So I think the national media really rallied around our story too, but so many other people have the same story. It was an interesting time in media that people weren't just getting laid off and going out to pasture.
More quick hits
[SEMAFOR: Matthew Segal on how ATTN will be the ‘HBO of short-form’] ATTN was an early benefactor of Facebook's pivot to video, but its founder eventually realized that billions of video views were worthless if they weren't properly monetized. So the company shifted its focus to making videos that were underwritten by brands and institutions. This emphasis on continual cash flow allowed it to survive as many of its VC-funded competitors were wiped out by Facebook's pivot away from news.
[NYT: ‘Pod Save America’ Won’t Quit] Trump's 2016 victory fueled the rise of Crooked Media and transformed its founders into the leading voices of the resistance movement. Now those same founders are attempting to strike a careful balance between political activism and operating a diversified media company with over 100 employees.
[DANNY GONZALEZ: The King Copycats Of YouTube] It's kind of amazing that there's so much hand-wringing over whether AI devalues content creation and yet there hasn't been a massive outcry about the sheer amount of content theft that's being propagated by the major platforms. For instance, I noticed that the "for you" feed on Threads today consisted of like 70% copy-and-pasted "meme" content. There's an entire cottage industry of people who do nothing original and just spend all day stealing shit.
[NEW YORKER: The K-Pop King] Record labels in America specialize in spotting talent and supercharging distribution. K-Pop's model is to actually incubate talent, investing in years of training and development before orchestrating a careful roll-out of a new band. Now the country's most successful music mogul is attempting to replicate this model in the US.
[VULTURE: Why Is My Fave TV Show Taking So Long?] I think this is probably a bad trend for serialized TV. There are so many instances where I'll enjoy the first season of a show, but by the time the second season comes out I've forgotten everything that happened and quickly give up after a few episodes.
I’m looking for more media entrepreneurs to feature on my newsletter and podcast
One of the things I really pride myself on is that I don’t just focus this newsletter on covering the handful of mainstream media companies that every other industry outlet features. Instead, I go the extra mile to find and interview media entrepreneurs who have been quietly killing it behind the scenes. In most cases, the operators I feature have completely bootstrapped their outlets.
In that vein, I’m looking for even more entrepreneurs to feature. Specifically, I’m looking for people succeeding in these areas:
Niche news sites
Video channels like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels
Podcasts
Newsletters
Affiliate/ecommerce
Interested in speaking to me? You can find my contact info over here. (please don’t simply hit reply to this newsletter because that’ll go to a different email address. )
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