How many times will media people have to pull up stakes in a panic before they see the pattern?
π Pressure on Substack β Pixel Envy:
It would be odd if the economics of Substack β a collection of writers and publications with paying subscribers β are somehow better than those of, say, a magazine publisher today β also a collection of writers and publications with paying subscribers. It does have a tech sheen and the vibe of social networking, though, and there are no printing costs.
Yet it is still another platform hosted elsewhere. It simplifies the process for writers, podcasters, video creators, and others to publish their work for money. But their stuff is still made available at the mercy of software they do not control β and I bet there will be a time when Substack decides to make a controversial platform-wide change some publishers will want to back away from. The pressure is already there.
I mean, it is only a matter of time, right?
I guess if you’re a writer or journalist that just wants a place to write and publish your stuff, Substack’s offer is pretty appealing, and the calculation is that the ease of onboarding and finding an audience outweighs the riskβif you’re even aware of ifβthat something bad might happen down the road.
But dollars to donuts, all these people who have gone all-in on the platform will be shouting and complaining when it inevitably turns shitty, despite the fact that it was guaranteed to happen.