paying subscribers, and now attracts 12 million users a month.
Newsletter writers can make their pages free or paid, or a mix of the two. Subscriptions cost $5 a month and upwards, depending on the writer. Substack provides hosting of the page and email blasts, and takes 10 percent from subscriptions and another 2.9 percent to cover credit card fees. If you don't charge, Substack charges nothing.
But this new journalistic juncture is about more than money and the return of blogging. Substack-like newsletters have struck
a declaration of independence for writers who have longed for the day that they could wave bye-bye to their editors and shove them onto an ice floe and into the frigid current. By serving their copy directly to readers, newsletter writers displace editors from their high-priest functions in the temple of journalism. A Substack writer produces his copy without the usual interventions by editors. The writer no longer has to wait for his editor to approve a pitch before working on it. He doesn't have to wait for it to be edited. He doesn't have to sign off on or contest the edits. Nobody can demand a rewrite from him. It's important to differentiate the indy newsletters from the professional newsletters produced by places like POLITICO and the