Written by Nia Georgieva
The first time I heard about Substack was over a year ago, from a friend of mine on a random summer night while casually strolling in a park on our way back home from the most delicious dinner we’ve had in months. She was telling me about how obsessed she was with it and how many intriguing articles she’d found about music and ballet (she herself is a ballerina). To be fair, I didn’t even bother asking her more about it. I had no idea whether it was a website, an app, or something else entirely.
Fast forward a year later, videos about Substack flooded my social media; on TikTok, Instagram, even (I refuse to call it X) Twitter. Even my Macroeconomics professor mentioned it briefly during one of his lectures and afterwards sent us a link to two Substack articles by famous economists that he personally found intriguing. I decided to install the app.
For the past few months, I’ve been–to put it mildly–obsessed. Everyday, I dedicate about fifteen minutes of my time during breakfast to reading a Substack post. It could be about psychology, politics or, my personal favorite, neuroscience. There’s one thing that has been on my mind for quite some time; what does this specific platform have that has made everyone so crazy about it?
For writers and creators, the reasoning behind using Substack seems simple. If they could manage to break through and capture a devoted following, they could really monetize it since Substack takes only 10% of the paid subscription revenue. Unlike its competitors like Patreon, Medium, or Ghost, to name a few, its distinctive appeal is that writers can build a newsletter business and audience in the same place while keeping their subscriber list. Additionally, the platform really enables them to feel closer to their readers compared to a traditional reporting job to a paid newsletter like Substack because they are much more personal. An article from 2020 by Jacob Bogage from The Washington Post highlights just this by taking a look at one concrete example, a writer named Emily Atkin. Moreover, she talks about how this experience really changed her self-perception for the better: “[It makes you think], ‘Oh, I actually could be worth quite, quite a bit. My ideas are good.’“.
A study called Digital Platforms and Journalistic Careers: A Case Study of Substack Newsletters, published in 2022 by Shira Zilberstein, talks about how there are three different ways that writers use Substack. Some use it as a side quest, some as a main career path, and others as a temporary way to keep writing after losing their job. The researcher comments, “As communication technologies continue to evolve, journalists confront ever more opportunities and tools to shape their work and careers. We see journalists experimenting not only with newsletters but with media such as podcasting and texting, and structures such as publishing work as a collective and hosting live events”.
All of this sounds beyond exciting, but there’s still one very important thing to consider. Although Substack gives writers control over publishing, it cannot guarantee readers will find them; in a crowded market, audience growth often depends on existing reputations, social media reach, and professional connections that bring a newsletter to people’s attention.
However, for enthusiasts interested solely in writing content and not necessarily making any money off of it, as well as people like me, who just enjoy reading more personal stories, Substack is undoubtedly the perfect place, with practically zero drawbacks. First of all, it is convenient and really easy to navigate. The platform gives access to all types of media, such as short threads, long essays, podcasts, and Pinterest-esque pictures all at once. Second, and the thing I believe that really makes it stand out is its high-quality recommendation algorithm that offers new users upon registering a wide variety (and a subvariety!) of topics of interest to choose from. And finally, I have a feeling that Substack is one of the least toxic social media apps out there and that it encourages a sense of community. When I go through the comments on nearly every article I read, they are always so affirming, and even when they include criticism, they offer it in a constructive manner. This is so much more different than my experience on Twitter, let’s say, or even TikTok and Instagram. I can just really feel the support of people for the writer’s work. This is honestly refreshing.
I’ll honestly recommend Substack to every person enthusiastic about reading and writing as a hobby because its whole vibe is just so… for lack of better words, wholesome! We live in a world where we are bombarded with information constantly, and it feels so good to just take a step back and enjoy a good-written blog post like the good old days.