Substack

Substack was founded in 2017 by Chris Best, the co-founder of Kik Messenger; Jairaj Sethi, a head of platform and principal developer at Kik Messenger; and Hamish McKenzie, a former PandoDaily tech reporter. Best and McKenzie have said Ben Thompson's Stratechery, a subscription-based tech and media newsletter, was a major inspiration for their platform. In 2019, Substack added support for podcasts and discussion threads among newsletter subscribers. By November 2021, the platform said it had more than 500,000 paying subscribers, representing over one million subscriptions. In January 2022, Substack announced that it would begin private beta testing of video functionality on its platform. In April 2023, Elon Musk spoke with Substack's leadership about purchasing the platform, but his offer was rejected. Musk criticized Substack Notes, and Twitter began censoring links to Substack. In November 2023, Substack introduced new video creating and editing tools, and content creators started launching original shows on the platform. In April 2024, Substack partnered with Spotify to enable podcasters to distribute episodes on both platforms and added new editing features for podcasts. In June 2024, Substack announced a year-long development initiative for TikTok creators called Creator Studio, and added five-minute video capabilities to the chat function. Video was also added to Notes. By November 2024, Substack had four million paid subscriptions. Substack added livestreaming options for creators in September 2024. In June, independent journalist Eric Newcomer reported that Substack was in talks to raise a new funding round. The New York Times later reported that Substack had raised $100 million, valuing the company at $1.1 billion. The investors in this round were Andreessen Horowitz, BOND, The Chernin Group, Skims, and Klutch Sports Group. According to TheWrap, the beta app allows Substack subscribers to watch creators' video posts and livestreams. The app can be used by both free and paid Substack subscribers, with access to content based on subscription tiers. == Content ==

Substack users include journalists, subject-matter experts, and media platforms. New York Times columnist Mike Isaac argued in 2019 that companies like Substack see newsletters as a stabler means to maintain readers through more direct connection with writers. In 2020, The New Republic said there was a dearth of local news newsletters, especially in contrast to the large number of national-level political newsletters. As of late 2020, many journalists and reporters were joining the platform, driven in part by the long-term decline in traditional media (there were half as many newsroom jobs in 2019 as in 2004). It called Substack's content moderation policy "lightweight", with rules against "harassment, threats, spam, pornography, and calls for violence; moderation decisions are made by the founders". historian Heather Cox Richardson; tech journalists Casey Newton and Eric Newcomer; data journalists Matthew Yglesias and G. Elliott Morris; economists Glenn Loury and Emily Oster; linguist John McWhorter; journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss; and authors Daniel M. Lavery, George Saunders, Nick Hornby, Susan Orlean, Blake Nelson, Chuck Palahniuk, Marianne Williamson, Salman Rushdie, Tui T. Sutherland, David Bentley Hart, and Skottie Young. In 2026, Andrew Tate joined the platform, quickly rising to the #1 place in the news category. ==Finances==

Authors can decide to make subscribing to their newsletter free or paid, and to make specific posts publicly available to non-subscribers. Substack earns no revenue from advertisements placed by publishers. In February 2019, the platform began allowing creators to monetize podcasts. Substack raised an initial seed round in 2018 from investors including The Chernin Group, Zhen Fund, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, and Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron. Andreessen Horowitz provided $15.3 million in Series A funding in 2019, some of which went to bringing high-profile writers into Substack's network. Substack has provided some content creators with advances to start working on their platform. Substack's founders reached out to a small pool of writers in 2017 to acquire its first creators. In August 2020, Substack reported that over 100,000 users were paying for at least one newsletter. Substack dropped an effort to raise money in May 2022. The company had aimed to raise between $75 million and $100 million. == Programs ==

In March 2021, Substack revealed that it had been experimenting with a revenue sharing program called Substack Pro, which paid advances for writers to create publications on its platform, but received criticism for not disclosing which writers were part of Substack Pro. This program ended in 2022. Substack provides legal advice to its writers through its program, Substack Defender. Lawyers provide a legal review of stories before they are published, and provide advice surrounding cease-and-desist letters related to writers' work. Substack has committed to covering up to $1 million in fees for cases accepted by Defender lawyers. ==Criticism==

Privacy and security incidents On July 28, 2020, Substack accidentally exposed users' email addresses by putting them in the "cc" field instead of "bcc" in a privacy policy update email regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act. It acknowledged the mistake on Twitter. In February 2026, Substack disclosed an October 2025 security breach in which a third party gained access to email addresses, phone numbers, and other internal metadata. According to The Verge, the data breach was noticed on February 3, 2026, and has been fixed. Substack announced that it would perform an investigation to prevent this from happening again. The three founders responded via blog post affirming their commitment to minimal censorship. In an open letter, more than 100 Substack creators threatened to leave the platform and implored Substack's leadership to stop giving bigotry a platform. In response, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie said the company would continue to allow the publication of extremist views because attempting to censor them would make the problem worse. Creators like Casey Newton, Molly White, and Ryan Broderick left the platform as a result. ==See also==