Substack wants to keep big media companies from outgrowing its platform.
The Ankler, one of Substack’s top publications, recently defected, citing the need for more control and flexibility. The Hollywood-focused media company left for Passport, a new platform created by WordPress.com owner Automattic and Stratechery founder Ben Thompson.
Other Substack rivals like Beehiiv and Ghost have cropped up, pitching flat fees rather than the commission-based model Substack uses.
Speaking to Business Insider on Thursday at Substack’s New York media confab, “The Once and Future Media Forum,” cofounder Hamish McKenzie said The Ankler wanted to do display advertising, which Substack doesn’t offer.
He added that the solopreneur-rooted company is developing tools for higher-volume publishers.
He pointed to a pilot Substack announced in 2022 with Bari Weiss-led The Free Press to give it a customized brand presence on Substack. Other features Substack developed for The Free Press include a metered paywall and analytics tools.
McKenzie said Substack has learned “a hell of a lot” about how to better serve such publications.
“We’re generalizing those tools now so that more people who want to start fully-fledged media businesses with multiple editors and writers, and video and community features, can take advantage of them and we can support them,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that 100% of the people are always going to be completely satisfied with the existing feature set, but we’re making really fast progress on it.”
McKenzie said other publishers besides The Free Press were eager to have their own customized presence.
“They feel like their visually distinctive brand is very important to helping them distinguish themselves in the marketplace and not be seen as just another Substack,” he said.
What about advertising?
McKenzie said on Thursday that the platform was “pretty close” to fully rolling out a sponsorship marketplace. It recently started piloting the effort with select authors, including OG Substacker Bill Bishop of “Sinocism.”
He said the revenue split could be similar to the 10% cut Substack takes from subscriptions.
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