prime 27 highest-earning Substacks generate over $22m a 12 months
The 27 highest-earning electronic mail newsletters on the platform Substack generate a minimum of $22m a 12 months in income, Press Gazette can reveal.
Evaluation of publicly-available info on the newsletter platform signifies a small proportion of customers every comfortably make sufficient to reside off, and in some circumstances, sufficient to pay for a multi-staff operation.
Substack is protecting of its subscription figures and few writers on the platform disclose their income or variety of paying subscribers.
However the website does provide broad descriptions of paid subscriber figures, disclosing {that a} author has “hundreds of”, “tens of hundreds of” or, in a single case, “a whole bunch of hundreds of” paying subscribers.
This, alongside customer-facing details about annual subscription costs, makes it doable to calculate minimal and most income figures for every Substack publication.
The figures reveal that a minimum of 5 Substack newsletters attract $1m yearly. Nonetheless, the ranges are so broad that the majority the newsletters included on this record might obtain that determine.
The one exception is the Substack run by civil rights activist Shaun King, which is the one publication on this record which Substack says has solely “hundreds of” paid subscribers. It has been included as a result of it seems above a publication with “tens of hundreds” in Substack’s leaderboard, implying it makes a minimum of as a lot income because the publication beneath it.
Properly-known Substack newsletters comparable to these authored by Glenn Greenwald, Dominic Cummings and Bill Bishop will not be on this record as a result of they’re described as having solely “hundreds of” paid subscribers by Substack. If of a Substack publication that you just consider has greater than 10,000 subscribers and must be on this record, electronic mail bron.maher@pressgazette.co.uk.
Substack declined to make clear whether or not having “tens of hundreds of” subscribers meant a publication had greater than 10,000 clients or greater than 20,000.
Nonetheless, one Substacker on the record who has “tens of hundreds” of subscribers advised Press Gazette when requested about their follower numbers: “We have been open about the truth that we’ve got greater than 10,000 paid subscribers.”
Press Gazette has consequently proceeded on the belief “hundreds of” subscribers means greater than 1,000 and “tens of hundreds” means greater than 10,000.
Our calculations are for total subscriber income, and don’t account for the 10% cut Substack takes or any offers writers might have with the company.
[Read more: Newsletter success is about ‘real intimacy’ not content, says Substack head of UK writer partnerships]
The evaluation affirms earlier reporting suggesting Substack has grow to be a lucrative revenue stream for writers with fringe views. For instance, Covid-19 vaccine sceptics Robert Malone, Steve Kirsch, Alex Berenson and Joseph Mercola all seem among the many most profitable Substacks. As does Jimmy Evans, whose publication, Tipping Level Prophecy Replace, is worried with the forthcoming finish of the world.
Not all these on the record are alt-media, nonetheless. Dan Rather, the previous CBS Night Information anchor, seems to make a minimum of $500,000 in income. The joint-second most profitable Substack on the record, written by Gergely Orosz, covers engineering and brings in some $1.5m.
And by far probably the most profitable publication in Press Gazette’s evaluation is Letters from an American, which seems to usher in a minimum of $5m in annual subscription charges. That Substack – the one one listed as having “a whole bunch of hundreds” of paying subscribers on the web site – is written by Boston School historical past professor Heather Cox Richardson and presents, according to The New York Occasions, “a break from the media maelstrom”.
[Read more on The New Statesman: Is Substack the future of media?]
Some details about these newsletters’ income has been reported elsewhere. For instance, Bari Weiss, the former New York Times opinion author who now runs The Free Press on Substack, advised Semafor that she raised $80,000 in annual subscription revenue inside the first week of launching her publication, then named Frequent Sense. She additionally disclosed to the start-up that in March 2022 she raised between $1m and $5m from outdoors buyers to increase the publication. Press Gazette’s evaluation signifies her publication now earns a minimum of $800,000 yearly.
Equally, The Washington Post reported final month that Sluggish Boring, the publication run by Vox co-founder Matthew Yglesias, has at least 13,000 paying subscribers, which might imply his Substack generates a minimum of $1.04m. Yglesias was initially tempted to the platform with a $250,000 up-front payment (offset by Substack taking 85% of his first 12 months’s subscription income). In accordance with Press Gazette’s evaluation, Sluggish Boring also needs to earn a minimum of $800,000 yearly earlier than Substack’s 10% price.
[Read more: How to make money on Substack and Patreon – newsletter platforms charted]
Greater than half of the top-performing Substacks seem within the website’s crowded politics part. Nonetheless, among the many prime ten, which all make a minimum of $600,000, six are from different sections.
Tradition is the second-best represented class, with 5 newsletters within the prime 27 record and three within the prime ten.
[Read more: Manchester Mill celebrates local press paywall profitability]
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