Overall, building subscription businesses is a great way to incentive creators to make their best content. Paying for content is a signal that users trust and value content creators instead of relying on ads to pay for content creation.

Another problem with this advertiser relationship with websites was logistics. Not only was it hard to decide which websites to buy ads on, but it was hard to coordinate. Each website often had their own ad sales team and there wasn’t enough time and resources as a buyer to deal with all these sales teams.

Ad networks, most notably Facebook and Google, provided solutions to advertisers’ buying problems. The main thing they provided was more data on consumers.

Journalists might want to be under a brand instead of on independent platforms

Consumers may not be willing to pay subscriptions for writing. Or, there may not be a combined $1B/year of demand for writing subscriptions

Ads can be placed on any web page and web pages can be created ad infinitum. there is no supply constraint.

Substack has a business model that creates unique unit economics. Substack isn’t trying to build the next The Economist or The Athletic. It’s not branded; the consumer doesn’t need to know what Substack is. Instead, the growth will come from consumers resonating with individual creators.

Email could be the wrong entry into paid content. Audio, video or something else could be a better wedge

Companies like Memberful, Patreon, Ghost or others could become the platform that Substack is aiming to build