JD Graffam’s Post

Substack is gaslighting us. They say they're not a traditional media company, but they are. What business that lets writers put fresh words out there for people to read isn't? To understand this, all you need to do is think about where the incentives are. Naturally, Substack'll have incentives to grow readership, because readers are the ones who ultimately fund Substack. This bears repeating: Readers fund Substack, not writers. So Substack builds for readers. So, Substack will give readers what they want. They'll give writers what they have to. Because they need to attract writers who will draw readers. And we writers don't lack incentives, either. We create content that we believe will attract readers. But readers, on the whole, just want content they agree with. So nod along with me about Substack's incentives and consider these points: 1. Substack says it won't pick winners, but they're paying big money to writers with big, existing audiences. 2. So that they can gobble up readers who already buy into perspectives. 3. And Readers will want more writers like the ones they already read. 4. So Substack just launched a "place" for readers. Substack says it's not a platform, yet they're building a place where readers can come and read what they want, paying with their money instead of their eyeballs. Advertisers are just middle men. Do not fool yourself into thinking Substack won't recommend things to readers. Why is that bad, though? Well, when Substack editorializes this way, it is at the expense of writers who do not hold popular opinions and who do not have an existing and/or scalable audience. This is despite Substack's best efforts to deny that they are doing this. Incentives are incentives. All of this undermines Substack's promise to the "soon-to-be discovered," because it will be harder for some to win than others. This is because Substack's incentives are centered around growing the readership of their most popular writers. The economics just don't work for small time writers. Those who help Substack grow readers fastest will win. Not those who write the best. If Substack can attract more readers faster, they will make more money. There's no way around that. Doesn't sound all too different from traditional media to me. They just cut out the middle man. ... You're smart, so you've asked yourself, "What is my incentive?" Well, glad you asked. I run Curated.co Email Newsletters. It's an independent, bootstrapped tool for writers who want to send newsletters. We let you sell subscriptions to your readers just like Substack does, but we don't charge extra for it—in other words, we don't take a commission like Substack, so our incentives are around making a good tool for writing your newsletter. The rest is up to you. #substack #substackalternatives