A Newsletter About Newsletters
(aka A Substack About Substack)
Allow me to begin with a story, whose relevance will soon become clear.
Once upon a time, I stumbled upon a site called StumbleUpon. You may remember StumbleUpon – it was quite popular for a while. Users could create web pages about other web pages, and find pages about which other people had created pages. Confused yet?
One day I wondered, "Is there a StumbleUpon page for StumbleUpon?" Of course, there was. And then I thought, "Is there a StumbleUpon page for that page?" Again, there was.
But then there was no StumbleUpon page for the page about the page. So I created one. And then I created one for the new page. And so on, until I broke the internet.
Why have I told this story? Because I recently had a similar thought about Substack.
There are many newsletters published on the Substack website. But was there a newsletter on Substack about Substack?
I haven't found a newsletter on Substack about Substack.* So I've created one.
*I should give a shout-out to Grow Getters, which focuses on a key aspect of Substack: how writers can start and grow their newsletters. The scope of my newsletter will be broader. But Grow Getters goes more in depth on its important topic.
If you've read the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. for long enough, you've likely come across articles in those publications about those publications. And sometimes they'll have articles about those articles.
If you are of a certain age (as I am) and paid close attention to the O.J. Simpson trial (who didn't?), you may have encountered a report about the media coverage. I believe there was even a CNN report about the media coverage of the media coverage.
I hope you'll agree that it's appropriate for a newsletter on Substack to be about Substack. It could get more meta at times, by covering not only Substack but coverage of Substack.
But what about potential bias? In contrast to a reporter writing an article about the reporter's newspaper, I am at some remove from Substack. I am not employed by Substack and have no connection to anyone affiliated with it.
Admittedly, this newsletter is dependent to a significant extent on Substack. (I could take the content elsewhere. However, for the immediate future, it's on Substack.) But if a reporter can deal with this kind of dilemma, then so can I. If you notice any bias in this newsletter for or against Substack, you can call me on it.
I was concerned that publishing on Substack about Substack might somehow violate the site's terms of use. Believe it or not, I reviewed all of the terms and related documents before creating a Substack account. (In law, one is sometimes rewarded for reading the fine print.) I recently reviewed the documents again and didn't see a problem with a newsletter about Substack.
As a practical matter, I hope that Substack and the writers who publish on it will benefit from the coverage by this newsletter. I have no agenda – I just think, like many of you reading this, that Substack is a fascinating phenomenon and worth examining over time.
Sub Pub will consider Substack from several angles.
Why have some writers/creators left other jobs or gigs to publish Substack newsletters – and why have some gone in the other direction?
What challenges and opportunities have relatively unknown writers experienced on Substack?
Why do some writers choose free newsletters while others choose paid, or both?
What do subscribers think of Substack newsletters, and what kinds of interactions are subscribers having with creators?
How is Substack adjusting to rapid growth and increased attention?
How are rivals such as Medium, Ghost, and Patreon responding to Substack and vice versa?
How are people in other media responding to Substack?
I look forward to conversations with people interested in Substack and newsletters. Feel free to suggest ideas, provide feedback, etc.
I hope you enjoy this Inception-like newsletter about Substack.
Perhaps someday there will be newsletters about newsletters about Substack, and newsletters about those newsletters, and so on until infinite recursion is achieved.