So You Want to Launch a Newsletter: Tips From Substack Writers
Podcast: a16z PodcastPublished On: Thu Sep 17 2020
Description: This episode, part one in a two-part series on the Creator Economy, explores the process and economics behind creating an independent newsletter. In this candid conversation, host Lauren Murrow talks with four Substack writers—an artist, a technologist, a journalist, and a clinical researcher-turned-psychedelics scholar—about how to find and foster an audience, the calculus behind going paid versus unpaid, the pressure to produce, and financial benchmarks for making a living from newsletter writing.The pandemic has prompted a reckoning within traditional media and, in parallel, a surge in the newsletter ecosystem. On Substack, readership and active writers both doubled from January through April. The newsletter hosting platform now has more than 100,000 paying subscribers.This episode reveals the behind-the-scenes experiences of four newsletter creators, all of whom launched roughly within the past year:Software engineer Lenny Rachitsky, most recently a growth product manager at Airbnb, whose tech-focused dispatch is called Lenny’s Newsletter.Artist and writer Edith Zimmerman, creator of the Drawing Links newsletter, which chronicles her life and musings through comic-style illustrations. Zach Haigney, an acupuncturist and researcher whose newsletter, The Trip Report, explores the science, policy, and business behind medicinal psychedelics.And Patrice Peck, a freelance journalist—previously a staff writer at BuzzFeed—whose newsletter, Coronavirus News for Black Folks, highlights the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on the black community.Listen to the end of the episode to hear more about Patrice, Zach, Edith, and Lenny's top newsletter recommendations:Patrice’s newsletter recs:The Intersection by Adriana LacyBeauty IRL by Darian Symone HarvinCarefree Black Girl by Zeba BlayMaybe Baby by Haley Nahman Zach’s newsletter recs:Stratechery by Ben ThompsonSinocism by Bill BishopA Media Operator by Jacob Cohen DonnellyOff the Chain by Anthony PomplianoThe Weekly Dish by Andrew Sullivan Edith’s newsletter recs:The Browser by Robert CottrellThe Ruffian by Ian LeslieRidgeline by Craig ModDearest by Monica McLaughlinWhy Is This Interesting? by Noah Brier and Colin Nagy Lenny’s newsletter recs:2PM by Webb Smith Li’s Newsletter by Li Jin Alex Danco’s Newsletter by Alex DancoTurner’s Blog by Turner NovakNext Big Thing by Nikhil Basu Trivedi Big Technology by Alex KantrowitzThe Profile by Polina MarinovaEverything by Nathan Baschez, Dan Shipper, Tiago Forte, and Adam KeeslingNot Boring by Packy McCormick Illustration: Edith Zimmerman
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