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1/ Thread: Newsletter TAM Today I polled on twitter how many investment professionals pay for newsletter/research blog/substack subscription. Almost half responded: Zero. The other half who pays for subscription, more than half of them pays for only one newsletter.

2/ I believe these are extremely bullish indicators for today’s newsletter/substack writers. As more and more analysts choose this path, in 5-10 years I believe most investment professionals will pay for 2 or more subscriptions.

3/ Why are most people not paying for newsletters? I. A psychological barrier to pay for content on internet even if you can afford it. II. Content that is available for free is pretty good. III. General lack of credibility of a typical newsletter.

4/ The best thing that can happen to current newsletter writers is MORE (not fewer) quality writers enter this space. If some of the best analysts start writing newsletters, the psychological barrier will be penetrated gradually.

5/ Free newsletters are great, but writing is hard. Writing consistently for free is even more difficult. Of course, writing can be a gateway to get into a conventional job as well. But once you get in, it's difficult to continue writing with same intensity.

6/ Since anyone can start a newsletter, the average quality of a newsletter is almost always going to be bad. So there is certainly a search cost involved to find the quality newsletters. But that’s true for recruiting an analyst as well.

7/ Wall Street pays on an average ~$7-15k/month to hire a fresh kid out of college/b school although you have little idea how that new kid will turn out. But you can try a newsletter for less than 1% of that cost and you can always fire this analyst whenever you want.

8/ I know the analyst you hire vs the newsletter you subscribe are not exactly the same thing, but they aren’t polar opposite as well.