Substack

Substack app. Credit - Gabby Jones—Bloomberg/Getty Images

In an era when readers gobble up free content served by algorithms, Substack has defied gravity by securing 5 million customers who pay to read original writing. Though the company remains unprofitable, its platform—designed to handle "everything but the hard part: the writing itself"—has enabled thousands of writers to earn money independent of major media organizations through paid subscriptions to newsletters and other content. It's drawn scores of writers—including standouts like Heather Cox Richardson, Nate Silver, Mehdi Hasan, and economist Paul Krugman—with some earning millions of dollars via the platform. In January, it announced $20 million in guarantees to help creators launch subscriptions. "People are hungry for media relationships with the writers and creators they really trust," says co-founder Hamish McKenzie. "There's a recognition that the kinds of media experiences you get from the doom scroll feeds corrode the soul and lessen the quality of the life you have."

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