The slow death of Substack

When Substack launched, nine years ago, working journalists thought this new platform might manage the unthinkable: make their profession economically sustainable. That hasn’t happened. Last week, one of Substack’s most successful journalists, Taylor Lorenz, disclosed on Substack Notes (the platform’s micro-blogging stream) that her paid subscriptions had “fallen off a cliff” — even while her follower count was “skyrocketing”. Lorenz has some 200,000 followers, an order of magnitude more than probably 99% of the other writers on Substack, and more internet fame than probably 99.9% percent of us. And yet, on the most basic metric of Substack success, she’s failing. If it’s happening to Lorenz, it will be happening to everyone downhill from her, too. Certainly, there are plenty of people who