More is not always best when it comes to attracting paid subscribers to journalism. This is the view of Farrah Storr, head of publisher partnerships at Substack UK , speaking at the Press Gazette Future of Media Trends event in London last week. She also said it is a mistake to see Substack as just a newsletter platform.
The former editor-in-chief of Elle UK said: “The best way to think about Substack is to see it as a media empire in the palm of your hand. “We’re seven years old now and in that time we have reimagined what a newsletter can be. You can send a podcast , a voice note, a video — and yes, of course a classic written newsletter.
“I joined the company three years ago and it’s true that the majority of writers were very much looking for a classic written ‘column’-style newsletter. That’s still a hugely popular format by the way and there are lots of our biggest columnists who do it brilliantly: Ian Dunt, David Aaronovitch and more recently Jameela Jamil.” She said one of the key benefits of the platform is it allows journalists to own their audience, and take it with them somewhere else if they wish by exporting their list of email subscribers.
Other platforms, such as Twitter/X , are harder to monetise and keep ownership of the reader data. She said: “Essentially Substack has allowed writers, creators and publishers to house everything in one place whilst also allowing them to own their audience. So many brands have spent years creating free c.
