Really smart media analysis from @Emily_Sundberg at Feed Me on Substack. I said this over there too, but I agree: Substack does not overlap with traditional (or startup) media formulas at all. It has a totally different algorithm, a self-contained audience that does not travel to or overlap with other media platforms, a very specific prevailing "voice." Nothing that predicts success in establishment media is at play on Substack.

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I've created and launched multiple newsletters for media companies and none of them -- NONE of them -- work the way Substack does. And it's not just the lack of technical tools like A/B testing for headlines. It's that the Substack audience is self-contained, with almost no overlap from other platforms (Twitter, Instagram etc) which means the audience has to be built organically. The kind of content that does well on Substack is also very different not just from traditional news media but even from lifestyle coverage. It's very heavy on the first-person and favors images, but also long rambling thoughts vs structured pieces mostly. There are exceptions but it's not a formula that works in regular media.