How Substack’s Global Ambitions Could Revive Non-News Media

As much of the news media scrambles to plant newsletter outposts in cities across the country, Substack has adopted a different approach with its new program, Substack Local. As reported earlier this week, Substack will split $1 million between 12 publications scattered across the globe. Unlike its local newsletter peers, 6AM City, Axios Local, WhereBy.Us or Overstory, whose city-based newsletters act as miniature versions of newsrooms, many of the Substack Local finalists will report on niche subject matter that differ in their specificity, subject and structure from traditional news-gathering operations. By investing in a variety of different types of media, Substack Local executes a dual experiment. It tests the viability of the Substack model across a range of formats, and it provides a potential blueprint for revitalizing non-newspaper publications, such as magazines, alt-weeklies and serialized reporting, globally. While Substack, with its 500,000 paying subscribers, represents a small slice of the media ecosystem, the program could have revenue implications for advertisers looking to reach new audiences. International in scope The publications will receive different amounts of funding based on their location and mission, Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie confirmed. The Manchester Mill, for example, will receive $150,000, according to Substack Local judge Richard J. Tofel, whereas another publication received around half that amount, according to documents reviewed by Adweek. The winning cohort has an international scope: half of the publications are U.S.-based, while the other six are based in Romania, Nigeria, Brazil, the U.K., Taiwan and Australia. Of the 12 Substack Local winners, at least five depart from more traditional newspaper operations in their focus. Most notably, Hanna Raskin, formerly the food editor and chief critic for The Post & Courier, will use her grant money to launch The Food Section, a regionally focused food publication. Heterogeneity in focus, tone and structure Melissa del Bosque and Todd Miller, the authors of The Border Chronicle, will bring journalistic rigor to their coverage of the U.S.-Mexico border, but their specificity of focus makes them unique as a standalone publication. In a similar vein, George Chidi’s focus on gun violence and gang warfare in Atlanta lends his Substack the feel of a serialized reporting project, rather than the daily chronicle of a metropolitan city. "If this story does what I expect it to do, I may have actually shorted myself," Chidi said. "This is the story of my life, and I think Substack came to me because they realized what I had." In Brazil and Romania, writers Gaía Passarelli and Alexandru Enășescu will focus their newsletters on cultural subjects, with occasional apolitical reporting on civil issues. And in Taiwan, Michelle Kuo and Albert Monshan Wu aim to create the "Village Voice of Taipei." Even the more standard news operations bring their own idiosyncrasies to the table. Adam Stone’s The Examiner News, which reports on Westchester County in New York, is unique in its near-total reliance on print advertising as a revenue source. If Substack can help The Examiner News transition to digital revenue, it could provide a schematic for other publications looking to make such a switch. Opening up new revenue sources While local newspapers have disappeared at an alarming clip in the last decade, their extinction has been matched by that of their niche-media counterparts. At least 30 alt-weeklies publicly reported cash flow problems last year, and city magazines made desperate overtures to readers for support, according to Poynter. Last year, the week of March 15 through March 22 was perhaps “the single worst week in the history of America’s alternative press,” according to Harvard’s Nieman Lab. If Substack Local can prove that its model supports subject-based and culture-focused publications, it could open up new opportunities for relevant advertisers, according to sources. While Substack famously employs paywalls rather than advertisements, many newsletters in its ecosystem have taken to jerry-rigging ads into their products anyway. Brands and businesses whose products fit poorly into general-interest newspapers could find targeted, affordable audiences in standalone publications. “We've learned over the last five years that if you focus on the whales of your audience, the top 15% to 20% of readers, those people are willing to pay to support local media,” said Rob Ristagno, the CEO of the Sterling Woods Group, an organizational growth firm. In addition, Substack Local grantees are only obligated to remain in the program for one year; after that, they can take their email lists and intellectual property elsewhere, potentially to a platform more amenable to advertising. Per usual, Substack puts this onus on itself, using its loose grip on writers as an impetus to serve them so thoroughly they decide to stay. “When I was an independent writer, this is the sort of program I would have wanted: my ownership rights are respected, I control the relationship with my audience and I can walk away anytime I want,” McKenzie said. “We want to give writers the kind of treatment that startup founders get.” Newsletter Platform Substack Goes Local

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How Substack’s Global Ambitions Could Revitalize Non-News Media

The program could help savvy advertisers reach niche audiences

Mark Stenberg

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Mark Stenberg