The Verge: Substack’s redesign makes it feel like a more traditional social media app. “After a tease in a blog post on Tuesday, Substack officially shared details about its redesigned app on Wednesday, which offers a new ‘Home’ tab and some adjustments to the app’s current layout.”
The Verge: One of Reddit’s biggest communities is suggesting users move to Discord. “The biggest Reddit community that’s still private as part of the Reddit protest is now encouraging its users to congregate elsewhere: Discord and Substack. If you currently try to visit r/malefashionadvice, which has more than 5 million subscribers, you’ll be greeted with a page that suggests you visit the community’s Discord and Substack instead.”
The Verge: How two insurgents are taking on Twitter. “Today I want to look at two different ways that insurgents are attempting to take on Twitter and what they tell us about where Twitter may be vulnerable. It’s a deeper-than-usual dive into how social products get built — but if you’re the sort of person who wonders, as I do, when we can all be done with Twitter for good, you have to first ask yourself what kind of product could actually succeed in making Twitter irrelevant.”
Ars Technica: Substack debuts feature that spooked Musk into suppressing Substack tweets. “Today, Substack officially rolled out Notes, the product that creates a feed that allows Substack creators and subscribers to interact. It functions so much like Twitter that it controversially caused Twitter to restrict links to Substack. But Substack doesn’t see Notes as a Twitter rival, telling Ars that Substack has no plans to become the next Twitter.” The way they describe it, it sounds more like RSS.
TechCrunch: Twitter won’t let you retweet, like or reply to Substack links. “Twitter is censoring Substack links by making the posts impossible to reply to, like or retweet. While quote-tweeting works, simply pressing the retweet button surfaces an error message: ‘Some actions on this Tweet have been disabled by Twitter.’” This story is changing a lot – some people are accusing Twitter of offering malicious links and changing search results related to Substack. I am not interested in indexing all of EM’s antics but it looks like a security risk might have been introduced here.
Substack Blog: Announcing the all-new Substack Reader for web. “There’s a new reading experience waiting for you at Substack.com. Now you can read all your Substack subscriptions—and more—in a clean, simple, and fast web reader. Everything stays in-sync with your Substack app for iOS. Want to add a publication from outside Substack? No problem—just select ‘Add RSS feed’ from the left sidebar.”
The Verge: Substack CEO says he’s ‘very sorry’ about laying off 13 people. “Substack is the latest tech company to announce layoffs, with the company’s CEO Chris Best tweeting on Wednesday that he’s letting 13 workers go. According to Axios, that’s around 14 percent of Substack’s workforce. In his letter and follow-up tweets, Best cites ‘market conditions’ as the reason behind the layoffs.”
New York Times: Substack’s Growth Spurt Brings Growing Pains. “The publishing platform’s founders want Substack to be an ‘alternate universe on the internet.’ But it faces copycat rivals, an exodus by writers and a need to move beyond newsletters.”
TechCrunch: Substack introduces a new iOS app for reading, Android launch coming soon. “Online subscription newsletter platform Substack announced today that it’s launching an iOS app for reading. In a blog post about the announcement, the company said the new ‘Substack Reader’ app brings all of your Substack subscriptions into one place where you can read content from writers you follow.”
Tubefilter: Substack Is Launching Native Video. “Subscription newsletter platform Substack is testing native video in a private beta. The feature enables users to upload or record videos directly into Substack posts, and then make those videos available to everyone or exclusively to paid subscribers, the company said.”
The Guardian: Anti-vaxxers making ‘at least $2.5m’ a year from publishing on Substack. “A group of vaccine-sceptic writers are generating revenues of at least $2.5m (£1.85m) a year from publishing newsletters for tens of thousands of followers on the online publishing platform Substack, according to new research.”
TechCrunch: Google’s R&D division experiments with newsletters powered by Google Drive. “Following entries into the newsletter market from tech companies like Facebook and Twitter, Google is now experimenting with newsletters, too. The company’s internal R&D division, Area 120, has a new project called Museletter, which allows anyone to publish a Google Drive file as a blog or newsletter to their Museletter public profile or to an email list.”
The Verge: Substack is getting into comics. “Substack is trying to put a new spin on webcomics. The newsletter platform announced today that it’s signed a number of comics creators up to use its platform. They’ll email comics out to readers and use Substack’s subscription tools to charge directly for access to their work.”
TechCrunch: Facebook onboards another 31 newsletter writers on Bulletin. “Late last month, Facebook announced Bulletin, its newsletter platform. Unlike Substack, Medium and other competitors, Bulletin hand-picks its writers to curate a more controlled platform, with stars ranging from Mitch Albom, whose book ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ continues to break hearts in seventh grade English classes, to Queer Eye’s Tan France, who taught a generation of young people how to perfect their French tuck. Today, Facebook announced its first new wave of newsletter writers after its initial beta launch.”
NiemanLab: Here’s how to turn your Gmail into Google Reader, kind of. “After paying for all those damn Substacks, you might as well read them, right? But I’ve found that Gmail isn’t very good at recognizing the newsletters you pay for as important. It doesn’t necessarily treat the newsletter you’re paying $50 a year as different from, say, ‘20% Off Big and Husky Deals Ending Soon! ⏰ ‘ from AutoAnything.com. But journalist Will Oremus, recently of Medium’s OneZero, found a way around this, essentially turning the ‘Forums’ tab of his Gmail into a mini Google Reader (RIP) for newsletters.” No Gmail hack, no matter how clever, is Google Reader. But it IS a clever hack.
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