From the outside, Substack's strategy has seemed to be the following: 1) Create a beautiful, simple blogging platform, which Substack most certainly is. 2) Very slowly release control of who can use Substack to create cachet. 3) Pay some people to post to the site, but not most of them. (Sub-strategy: Don't disclose who's working for Substack and w... See more

There can be no doubt that there is a lot of hateful content on the internet. But Substack has come up with the best solution yet: Giving writers and readers the freedom of speech without surfacing that speech to the masses. In your Substack Inbox, you only receive the newsletters you subscribe to. Whether you’re a reader or a writer, it is unlikel... See more

Both platforms try to convince writers and independent media brands to join them. Both platforms have lots of funding and receive lots of press. Neither platform can decide if they are a content management system or a media brand.