Substack Everything!
With a name like Everything, it's got to be good
When you've got Substack, Everything is Substackable.
“Everything” is an ambitious name and concept for a bundle of Substack newsletters on business strategy and productivity. Each newsletter is located at a subdomain of “every.to.” The home base is News (news.every.to). The ten newsletters currently under that umbrella are:
Talk Therapy (“How to start a business with your friend”)
Praxis ("The frontier of modern productivity”)
Free Radicals ("Conversations about leadership in this moment, with Sherrell Dorsey”)
Ask Jerry ("A weekly advice column on leadership and radical self-inquiry, featuring Jerry Colonna and Andy Sparks.”)
The Long Conversation ("A weekly show dedicated to the craft of writing.”)
Superorganizers (“How the smartest people in the world organize what they know to do their best work.”)
Napkin Math ("Business breakdowns, by the numbers”)
Means of Creation ("A talk show with Li Jin and Nathan Baschez about the passion economy”)
Divinations ("Get smarter about business strategy.”)
Almanack (“Deep dives on getting healthy, wealthy, and wise”)
“Everything” isn't everything. But it is a lot of things – especially within its broad subject matter – in a convenient package.
Substack subdomain or custom domain?
Many Substack newsletters – including Everything as of a few months ago – use subdomains of substack.com. Arguably a domain of one's own – as well as subdomains of the custom domain – is better for SEO, marketing, etc. On the other hand, even some of the must popular newsletters are at Substack subdomains.
I intend to explore the issue of “Substack subdomain versus custom domain” in a subsequent post. But for now, I think it suffices to say that a separate domain makes sense for the branding of a newsletter bundle. (Another bundle that has made the same choice is The Dispatch.)
To bundle or not to bundle…
It appears that you can only subscribe to the whole Everything bundle, rather than each newsletter individually.
Bundling might help in getting and keeping subscribers. While the bundle may cost more, subscribers might feel that they're getting more for their money. The Everything bundle is currently $20 ($2 per newsletter) monthly or $200 ($20 per newsletter) annually. That's much less than the normal $5 monthly minimum for a Substack newsletter.
Everything says it will continue to add newsletters. This could make its bundle even more attractive if its prices don't rise.
However, some people might balk at subscribing en masse to 10 or more newsletters. They might even prefer to pay more for less.
The bundle might or might not work out better for the writers. Making less per subscription could be cancelled out by increased subscriptions.
I envision tricky issues of how much each writer should get from the bundle's revenue, and how that should change when other writers leave or arrive. For example, what if one writer has twice as much readership as another writer? And what if a new writer amasses an even larger readership?
What does it all mean?
Is “Everything” a 21st century version of a business magazine or newspaper – or media empire? Is it a move closer to or further from a “penny press”? What implications do bundles have for non-bundles on Substack?
I hope to interview one or more of the writers at Everything soon. In the meantime, I'll look through and listen to their content for any insights about Substack, and let you know what I find.
Do you subscribe to any bundles of newsletters?
What has your experience been with a bundle subscription?