
Reporters are leaving newsrooms for newsletters - robbybaron
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/24/substack-email-newsletter-journalism/
======
fossuser
I’m happy with this.

It allows me to directly support writers I like and it allows them to write
high quality long form content on their own schedule _without_ the corrupting
influence of ads.

They can be more independently minded.

Paying for the NYT I support writers I think are great, but also writers I
think are terrible (that Taylor Lorenz spat recently), also policy I think is
wrong (pushing to publish Scott Alexander’s last name). Most of the tech
reporting is similarly bad. I also get ads and I’m forced to call to cancel.

Vox produces some great stuff, but also recode and that no handshakes article
mocking Silicon Valley for taking the pandemic seriously. I don’t want to
support those writers.

It’s nice to support writers individually and directly.

Maybe Steven Levy or Li Yuan will do newsletters too.

The next step is making it easy for them to own their own platform under their
own domain and _not_ on medium or substack.

~~~
kspacewalk2
How does one discover new writers in this world of balkanized newsletters?
Even more importantly, how does one get exposed to different perspectives? Not
necessarily _radically_ different ones either, just writers with blind-spots
that differ from those of your 5-10 favourite reporters/commenters/pundits?

~~~
BurningFrog
I guess only after the writers have "atomized" can they be reaggregated into
new dynamic configurations.

If I could pick my few favorite writers and combine them with some curated
feeds I trusted, including a few "bubble bursters" giving me the top ranked
stuff from people I consider idiots, that might just be a nice new news &
commentary ecosystem!

------
stormdennis
I'm for this too. I've recently unsubscribed from _the_ paper of record in my
country. I was tired of its editorial slant which is relentlessly socially
progressive. It's also overheavy with opinion columns and light on
investigative journalism. Columnists who are apparently experts on a new topic
every week. I feel a bit bad about it because newspapers are dying and I'm
contributing to that now but another part of me thinks that their time has
passed. What I want is information not opinion. I want reporters to bring new
information to my attention and find out the facts about situations in an
impartial manner. And I've no interest in fashion, cookery, wines,
restaurants, relationships, puzzles horoscopes, etc. I can get all that
elsewhere and in a far more comprehensive manner.

------
sawaruna
Not totally sure why, but I've been enjoying newsletters (though none of the
paid via Substack) a lot more lately. The constant flow of news via HN,
Twitter, etc. results in a kind of information overload and it's quite easy to
just scroll on to the next item. While newsletters are essentially just 'more
information', perhaps there's something about a curated set of information
that (presumably) has some more thought put into it than the click of a
retweet button that makes it more appealing to more completely ingest and
engage with.

~~~
Wowfunhappy
I guess my problem with email newsletters is that they show up in my email
client, alongside other emails from real people. I really don’t want them
there.

I think I would like newsletters if I had a separate system just for them. Not
just a different inbox within my email client, but a different program
altogether, so they occupy a different headspace.

I’ve used [https://www.kill-the-newsletter.com/](https://www.kill-the-
newsletter.com/) a bit and I think it’s a great service, but the resulting
feeds feel distinctly “non-native,” like the feeling of running a Windows
program in Mac or Linux with Wine.

~~~
toyg
_> I think I would like newsletters if I had a separate system just for them._

You've basically described a RSS aggregator.

~~~
Wowfunhappy
Yes, the problem is most of these newsletters aren't available as RSS feeds.
That's why I brought up Kill the Newsletter.

~~~
cbzbc
Newsblur (saas or self hosted) gives each user a random email address to which
they can forward emails and have them presented as different sets of feeds
depending on sender - so you can read these with the refs of your feeds.

~~~
tfehring
Inoreader does this too.

------
motohagiography
Have been mulling a substack newsletter for a while, but since I need to work
for a living, the risk of publishing doesn't justify the rewards. When I
started writing seriously about 20+ years ago, the upside was to become a
columnist, which was a kind of social tenure that allowed you to socially move
and think freely. The endgame was to become a kind of public intellectual on
the entry to a spectrum that included writers like Christopher Hitchens, Anne
Applebaum, Niall Ferguson, Camille Paglia, Stephen Fry, Nassim Taleb, even
Malcolm Gladwell or even Naomi Klein and lately to a lesser extent Matt
Taibbi, Glen Greenwald and Laura Poitras. While most of these are academics,
even 10 years ago there was a kind of public intellectual role that isn't
really viable today. At the time, most of those writers if they hit hard times
could still pick up a gig teaching, consulting or a fellowship to pay the
rent, but today if they crossed a line, they wouldn't be able to get a greeter
job at walmart. Maybe we're getting higher quality thinkers on the so-called
"intellectual dark web" because the risks they take are so much greater than
those taken by the Gore Vidals, Hunter S. Thompsons, H.L. Menckens, Seymour
Herschs, Martin Amis's, and Hannah Arendts, who wrote in a time where there
was a boundary between the public and the private spheres that enabled them to
write challenging things, and this drives off anyone not willing to embark on
a career-suicide pact to have their voice heard.

It's as though there has been a polarization and your option as a writer is to
become Charles Bukowski or nothing (and by nothing I mean Paul Krugman). If it
is indeed a trend that reporters are going rogue and writing news letters, I'd
say it's another example of this polarization of risk, and they will start
pulling punches, and they won't be able to do their best work without
institutional air cover. Perhaps I'm just not brave, but to me the risk/reward
of doing a blog or newsletter isn't quite there.

Reading the article and the comments, the economics of a newsletter are that
it needs to be something that imposes opportunity cost on scrolling newsfeed
crap on facebook, reddit, and to a lesser extent, HN. Viewed this way, the
competitor of a newsletter isn't other newsletters, it's the junk feeds of
readers. It's an exciting time to be a writer because we all know the demand
for content is infinite, it's just a question of how to harness it and secure
the means to be able to keep producing it when it lands something heavy and
provocative.

~~~
cheez
The problem is politics and philosophy is overdone. Find something useful to
people's lives.

~~~
motohagiography
Whether or not you are interested in politics, politics is interested in you.
It's unavoidable.

~~~
cheez
Whether or not politics is interested in me (it isn't, just in my subservience
and tax dollars), the market of people who write about politics is saturated
by people who look, think and act the same as you.

~~~
motohagiography
Not really, I'm pretty awesome, most writers today aren't. But don't sell
yourself short, I have no doubt there's a movement that would be interested in
using you.

~~~
cheez
That pretty standard journalist snark.

~~~
motohagiography
Pearls before swine, clearly. ;)

~~~
cheez
If you are not achieving your professional goals, no amount of 1 upping will
do. Focus on what is important.

~~~
motohagiography
I defer to your evident experience.

~~~
cheez
This is why journalism is dead. Not focused on what is important.

------
andersco
Is a newsletter not the same thing as a blog? If so, is this really a new
trend? And if not, how is a newsletter in this context different from a blog?

~~~
ytdytvhxgydvhh
I see there are already a ton of replies about push vs pull but the other
(non-technical) aspect of a newsletter is the expected cadence of publishing.
Some blogs have long gaps between posts and others have multiple posts per
day. Newsletters typically define a daily or weekly schedule and stick to it.
Sure, a blog could do the same thing, but they generally don’t. It sometimes
feels like the difference between Last Week Tonight and a constant feed of
breaking news clips.

~~~
mmahemoff
Yes, looking at the technical differences is missing the point.

Newsletters tend to have a regular schedule, are easier for consumers to get
started with (everyone uses email already), and have revenue models that can
make it sustainable for the creator.

------
the_watcher
About a year ago, I stumbled on Substack's page that shows writers what they'd
make, net of fees based on number of subscribers * price. 400 subscribers at
$10/month works out to ~37,000/year. That's not a way to get rich, but it _is_
almost exactly the US median income, and not far off the media journalist
salary.[0] If you're willing to write well, reliably, the math of paid
newsletters seems pretty friendly for making an ok living.

[0]
[https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Journalist/Salary](https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Journalist/Salary)

~~~
rohitrajan
Hi there (sorry to thread hijack) - found this comment of yours:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20517293](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20517293)
but I can't reply there.

We're working on a simple drag/drop style report builder to turn jp notebooks
into shareable reports. Currently in private beta, would you be interested in
trying it out? If so, please drop me a line: rohit [at] dolphyn [dot] io .
Thanks!

------
freddie_mercury
Are there actually that many "reporters" forming newletters? Most of what I
see are opinion columnists forming newletters and doing zero reporting. No
calling sources. No interviews. No digging into documents. No investigative
anything.

Looking at the various substacks mentioned I see a lot that are "people
writing their opinions on things they saw on Twitter". I'm not sure the world
needs more people spouting opinions on a weekly basis.

 _Heated_ is the only one mentioned that seems to do any actual reporting.

------
omreaderhn
I built a service that allows you to read email newsletters and RSS feeds on
your Kindle: [https://omreader.co](https://omreader.co)

I just launched this a few weeks ago and have had really positive responses
from HN users so far.

------
tqi
What happened to being worried about the "Filter Bubble"? While I'm sure this
will enable new voices to find a platform, which is (mostly) a good thing.
However my prediction is that newsletter writer will be largely incentivized
to write things that affirm rather than challenge their readers world views
(since that will drive retention), and I'm pretty sure this will result in
further polarization of our rhetoric and society.

Is it really so much better to choose your own bubble vs having it chosen for
you by "an algorithm"?

~~~
tomjen3
If I was subscribed to a newsletter I would consider it a benefit if it
included the occasional (thoughtful and smart) member of the out-group, so
that I could better understand them and their arguments.

What it wouldn't do however, is allow you, or anyone else, to force that
behavior an anybody else. I consider that a feature, not a bug, but I
understand people will disagree on that.

------
benlumen
Would-be writers that never gave it a shot are having a crack at newsletters
too. I've started one to get down some fully-fleshed thoughts on tech that
would've otherwise been left half-formulated and lost in a comment section.

There's something about the process of writing a standalone article that
forces you to frame your ideas properly and push them towards conclusions.

~~~
throwaway5752
Not addressed at you, particularly, but this is why a Twitter subscription
plan has legs. The most value out of a twitter feed comes from curation and
getting information from domain experts and trained/seasoned reporters. There
are more than enough people with opinions.

I highly encourage newsletter authors to avoid the trap of just selling their
opinion or meta-analysis, and do original reporting and research. Trying to
focus on a niche where one is an expert, too. Those seem most successful and
capable getting a sustainable number of subscriptions.

~~~
benlumen
Thanks for the general advice even if not aimed at me - you're right. I need
to bring original research as well as opinion. I've been looking into what I
can glean about social trends from open source intelligence methods. Early
days but interesting.

------
mike1o1
Ever since getting an @hey.com email address I've found myself subscribing
more and more to newsletter. I guess I could have done the same thing with
gmail and filters, but getting newsletters as part of The Feed and out of my
Inbox has made me really enjoy weekly newsletters compared to before.

~~~
michaelmarion
I did this a while back. There are a number of really awesome services now
that give you a one-off email address solely for signing up for newsletters,
and an in-app reading experience that is markedly better.

I've used Stoop [1] for the better part of two years now, and it's a great
product with a great model.

I'm working on using Feedbin instead so that I can get my newsletter emails in
Reeder, which I use for reading RSS feeds. That's my main news source, really.

Feedly also provides a lot of this functionality in their Pro+ plan, but they
go way above and beyond my needs at a higher price.

[1] [http://stoopinbox.com](http://stoopinbox.com) [2]
[http://feedbin.com](http://feedbin.com) [3]
[http://feedly.com](http://feedly.com)

------
dudlian
To be honest, it makes absolute sense for journalists to do this.
Decentralisation is happening in multiple fields (e.g crypto). Why not apply
this to journalism too - bringing the customer what they want, directly to
their inbox. No filler, no compromise.

Additionally, it means journalists have a different way to monetise their
time.

[https://patreon.com](https://patreon.com) is available for direct patronage.
Additionally [https://hecto.io](https://hecto.io) is a newsletter ads
marketplace, help journalists monetise their free newsletters.

It makes so much sense and can only see the trend getting bigger.

------
wintorez
Any suggestions on some “must-read” newsletters?

~~~
monocularvision
I am a big fan of The Dispatch
([https://thedispatch.com/](https://thedispatch.com/)). It is news reporting
and opinion from folks on the center-right.

~~~
vosper
Thanks, while I don't really like or identify with overly-reductive terms like
"left" or "right", I am aware of a "left"-ward bias in my information
consumption, and I'd like to see some alternative takes. I'll check this out.

------
cblconfederate
But it looks so totally predictable. It's not really possible to subscribe to
all the good ones, so we 'll need an aggregator. Congrats, we are about to
reinvent RSS. But if we call it UXLRBAT nobody will find out.

~~~
LegitShady
I'm ok with that. I miss RSS.

~~~
cblconfederate
Me too. In fact i think we regressed, and we 'll look back to our
oversaturated social media decade with disbelief. UXLRBAT will be nothing like
it.

Side note, i think this total centralization business has a LOT to do with the
dominance of mobile. There is an uptick of PC sales which is being accelerated
by COVID, and people are already talking about going back to running their own
services/blogs/whatever. I'll be glad to see the battery-dependent cloud
overlords stepping back a little.

------
dglass
Anyone know how the newsletter mentioned in the article, Heated, has a custom
domain[0] on substack? As far as I know substack doesn't allow you to use a
custom domain[1].

[0]: [https://heated.world/](https://heated.world/)

[1]: [https://support.substack.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360037454992-...](https://support.substack.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360037454992-Do-you-offer-custom-domains-)

~~~
arthurcolle
Maybe this: [https://customdomainer.co/](https://customdomainer.co/)

------
DenisM
After the AppStore launched the app prices underwent serious compression over
time, but a decade later the prices have decompressed and inflated way past
the starting point - turns out there were enough people willing to pay for the
privilege of using quality goods (codes).

I wonder if news reporting will go through a similar rebound? We've always
complained that news don't have a way to pay for themselves, but maybe now
there is...

------
russellendicott
I'm trying to find out how one would actually subscribe to content but the
Substack site seems to only show info on how to be a publisher.

~~~
daturkel
This is actually a very interesting point that I've come across on a few
different platforms recently (Patreon, for example, [also targets their
homepage to creators, not
consumers]([https://www.patreon.com/)](https://www.patreon.com/\))). I wonder
if Substack just doesn't want to deal with opening the door to some
newsletters getting "free promotion" by being features on their homepage?
Nonetheless, I'd love to see "trending" or "editors picks" or something.

Nonetheless, here are some I subscribe to:

Big, by Matt Stoller (about monopolies):
[https://mattstoller.substack.com/](https://mattstoller.substack.com/)

Margins (about business and tech):
[https://themargins.substack.com/](https://themargins.substack.com/)

Flow State (music):
[https://flowstate.substack.com/](https://flowstate.substack.com/)

Normcore tech (tech, data science):
[https://vicki.substack.com/](https://vicki.substack.com/)

The Passion Economy (business):
[https://passion.substack.com/](https://passion.substack.com/)

~~~
indigochill
Probably like Patreon, they expect that creators are bringing an existing fan
community with them. I've never discovered creators through Patreon, but I've
found countless creators elsewhere and then looked at their Patreon page to
see what they were working on/funding. As an email newsletter service, this is
particularly typical.

That said, these are some pretty neat newsletters so now I do find myself
wanting to discover more of them. I see an opportunity for something like one
of those "Awesome list" Github repos that lists neat Substack newsletters
people have found. And honestly that kind of feels more "wholesome" to me than
official curation since it's communicating one person's taste (or a curated
group's taste) rather than introducing potential incentives for newsletter
writers to try to game some system for publicity. This seems like a good
start. ;)

------
627467
What does a news organization bring to the table? resources to pay for your
time? resources to aid your investigation? Reputation that helps your written
word to reach an audience?

Maybe people traditionally thought: all those things. But this trend certainly
seems to question the value of what large news orgs bring to the table.

------
schnable
Newsletters are a great alternative to scrolling Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The Stoop app is great if you like newsletters but don't want them cluttering
your inbox: [https://stoopinbox.com](https://stoopinbox.com)

------
andrewstuart
Here's an idea:

What about if all the independent writers who are publishing newsletter emails
were integrated into a single page with daily updates.

If you liked the article you could subscribe to that newsletter.

~~~
indigochill
But does the newspaper format specifically add anything to this transaction?
Magazines are slower but higher-quality in virtually every way (and I like
that magazines are dedicated to a particular topic rather than subscribing to
a wide set of topics some of which you might not care about), while the
internet (particularly email newsletters) is faster and better-suited for
disposable daily updates.

The internet also provides the opportunity for some remarkable interactive
journalism (I know a guy who's done some of this for the WSJ) which is
impossible to replicate on paper and can sometimes convey the story better
than pure print can.

So does daily wood pulp still have a place in our media diet? I'm curious to
hear arguments for what purpose it still fills.

~~~
andrewstuart
I mean a website, not actual paper.

------
inamberclad
Independent content is great, but part of me wonders if this will create even
more siloing now that everyone only pays for the voices of one or two people?

------
gverrilla
paywall so I can't read

