But it doesn t mean you have to stay there forever.
On Tuesday, Every, the business-centric newsletter bundle formerly known as Everything, announced that after one year on Substack, it had moved to a custom-built website, taking its subscribers, contributors, and revenue along with it. In doing so, the chief architects of Every, Dan Shipper and Nathan Baschez, borrowed a technique first popularized by Discourse Blog, a left-leaning political publication that was born on Substack but migrated to its own website after reaching a critical mass.
Like the Discourse Blog founder Aleksander Chan, Shipper and Baschez pointed to the technical limitations of Substack as a key reason for leaving the platform. Before launching Everything, Baschez was one of Substack s first hires, a role that left him uniquely positioned to understand the capabilities of the platform.
Maria Bustillos This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
The Brick House Cooperative is a group of nine independent publications that operate under one umbrella.
To make clear how the publications would conduct business, they created a 25-page legal document called an operating agreement, which Brick House Cooperative founder Maria Bustillos shared with Insider.
The document lays out the unique way the publications divide revenue and split ownership.
One month after its launch, the Brick House Cooperative has nearly everything 1,800 paying subscribers and has generated more than $100,000 in subscription revenue.
Last August, nine independent publications joined in a collective experiment: banding together, they formed the Brick House Cooperative, a media company that would be worker-owned, subscription-based, and free of formal investment.
For-profit publishers solicit more grants and donors, while nonprofits look for more earned revenues; DEI-led startups get funding and support
2020 was a very bad year for local businesses in America during the COVID-19 pandemic. By July, more than 420,000 small businesses across the country had closed permanently, according to Stephen Hamilton, an assistant professor of economics at George Washington University. Hamilton believes that 13% of U.S. restaurants permanently closed, leaving 1.4 million people unemployed.
Meanwhile, local publishers had more news than ever to cover, with a lot less local advertising support. How did they survive and thrive during such a challenging year? They made lemonade from pandemic lemons.