substack
Substack and "platform risk"
It’s quite ironic that I spend part of my professional life warning publishers and content creators about platform risk while publishing a newsletter on Substack.
Platform risk can be summed up as the exposure you have to the whims and decisions of platforms on which your business depends. The example that I use a lot is Google: when your revenue depends on mass scale traffic from Google’s organic search results, changes in the algorithm can wipe you out overnight.
But there are other platform risks too. Twitter is a good example of this. For years, journalists and publishers cultivated their individual and brand presences on the social network, not because it delivered huge amounts of traffic (it was low single digits for many brands) but because it was a good place to establish a brand. It was disproportionately used by media people, and so had significant second order effects: you got the attention of people who could bring you more attention via other channels.
That and, as I always say, journalists are gossipy little creatures and Twitter was the world’s biggest journo watercooler. Your audience might not have been on there, but your friends and rivals were.
That’s why Twitter’s implosion under Elon “don’t give them their money back” Musk is so painful for many in media. A lot of independent creators, in particular, have been caught between not wanting anything to do with a platform where abuse of various kinds is encouraged rather than just tolerated, and wanting to protect their livelihood, which depends on connections on Twitter.
Which leads me on to Substack, and the overnight response of its executives to a letter from over 200 users of the service asking it not to host content by Nazis. There were many possible communications approaches the Substack execs could have taken. They appear to have chosen the worst of all worlds.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about why their response is bunk. Ken White has a good summary, and Nick Heer also has a good take. I will, though, note that Substack’s attempt to portray itself as a “haven for free speech” means “speech we decide is acceptable”: the platform does not allow porn, which is protected free speech in the US. Clearly the company is applying its values to decisions about what to host. Porn is bad, but Nazis – actual, real, Nazis – are fine.
Substack is allowed to apply its values to its business. But that also applies to individuals. Freedom of association is as foundational a right as free speech. In fact, arguably, more so. Without freedom of association, freedom of speech is (literally) so much hot air.
Of course, it applies to me too. And one of my core values, really quite a simple one, is not contributing to giving a platform to racists and fascists. Literal Nazis definitely fall into that bucket. By being here, even with a small audience, I am saying I am OK with platforming Nazis.
I am not, for the avoidance of doubt, OK with platforming Nazis. And I don’t want to do business with those that are.
So as of some point between Christmas and New Year – the traditional period for changing tech – I’ll be moving my Substack and mailing list to Wordpress.com, which I already use to host this site. WordPress has features for mailing lists, including paid subscriptions, and it’s easy to move your email addresses over there. Of course, I need to work out how to migrate existing content too.
If you’re currently a free subscriber on Substack, this will be almost completely seamless, except you won’t be able to automatically read my posts in the Substack app (no great loss, in my opinion, but your mileage may vary). You will, though, be able to subscribe via RSS in the Substack app if you really want to.
If you’re an annual paid Subscriber, you’ll be comped a full year starting in January. If you’re a monthly subscriber, you’ll be comped three months (if I can do it – I need to check if that’s possible, but I’ll work something out). As a reminder at present there are no additional benefits to anyone who pays, but I really appreciate that you do.
Ironically, WordPress charges me less of a cut than Substack, because I already host my site there. But if you want to move your own Substack and don’t want to pay a monthly fee, you can do that too – the free plan includes paid emails, at the same rate as Substack.
This move should happen before the new year, and I’ll keep subscribers updated about my progress and any snags I hit along the way. Then, at some point around the middle of January, I will be deleting my Substack, and my account.
Of course, if you disagree with this decision or aren’t comfortable with WordPress.com, please do unsubscribe! Your freedom of association is as important as mine.