Very few newsletters focus on the pure essay form though. Many do a sort of smorgasbord thing with multiple sections. Others like me do a lot of serialization. twitter.com/MattAlhonte/st
Conversation
Hmm. I am not sure about this. The most profitable newsletters are analyst content, but the median newsletter is more cultural commentary and op-ed'ing. Anyone have statistics? twitter.com/alexqgb/status
This Tweet is unavailable.
1
2
16
I think the broad unifying feature is that it is pseudo-public content built around individuals or cozyweb redoubts. Unless you're subscribed, you only get to see the public posts. There's something besides money-making to this access control. An element of discourse control.
2
18
Hmm... yeah, the difference between bloggers and newsletterers (I think we'll default to this out of convenience despite the awkwardness) is drawing a boundary around the discourse. It's like a small city state where a blog is more like a storefront for free stuff in a metro.
1
14
In a strange way, bloggers seem more commercial despite making less money. Newsletterers are ideologues for pay.
2
2
19
There's enough competition in the space that that's not accurate, plus normatively I don't like validating monopolistic brand-capture of a medium. Especially email which is at least still a cosmetic commons despite capture by gmail etc.
Quote Tweet
Replying to @vgr
eh, substacker is probably right
it's a proprietary eponym, like how people user Kleenex instead of "tissue"
2
12
Replying to
im just making a descriptive claim, not a normative one :P
there are also a lot of tissue companies!
1
1
Replying to
Then do you have data? I see plenty of ghost, buttondown, and even good old mailchimp still going
if you claim to be descriptive gotta back it with the numbers
1
1
Replying to
I don't have hard numbers off hand, but we run a reading product and substack is certainly the majority (of solo writer newsletters) for our users!
2
1
Replying to
hmm yeah, i don't think our niche is actually tooo non-representative, but you might be right!
i'm certainly excluding newsletters that are just pure marketing (lots of "influencers") and pseudo-companies like Morning Brew, Skimm, etc. I'm not sure if you mean to includes those
2

