The Substacks making $$$ | Associated Press grows its consumer revenue
And Semafor and Forbes chase high-value readers with free journalism
Hello, and happy Friday.
What do the top Substacks earn? That information is, sadly for those of us who are nosy, between the platform and its creators. But the company does provide enough data that we can at the very least highlight a swath of its newsletters that are doing very well indeed.
This week Press Gazette published our second-ever list of Substacks which — not accounting for discounts and service fees — we can be pretty confident earn at least $500,000 a year. Last time we ran this analysis, back in February 2023, there were 27 newsletters that passed this threshold: this year it’s 52.
There are caveats, of course. The main one is that there are a lot of publications — among them big-hitters The Ankler and The Free Press — who we’re pretty sure make more than half a million dollars a year, but for whom the information available on Substack isn’t enough to show that that must be true mathematically.
But I think the list makes for interesting reading. There are a bunch of famous journalists doing well on there: Pulitzer winner Seymour Hersh, conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, Trump chronicler Aaron Rupaur, Bon Appétit alum Alison Roman and pollster Nate Silver all appear on the ranking. And in keeping with Substack’s “alternative media” vibe, there’s also some conspiracists and doomsday prophesiers.
The fine folks at Substack and the people featured on the ranking are yet to send me any angry emails requesting I correct anything, so I’m hopeful we’re broadly on the money.
Also this week my colleague Charlotte Tobitt has spoken with Julie Pace, the senior vice president and executive editor of the Associated Press, to hear more about what the agency is doing to diversify its revenues following the news last year that major publishers Gannett and McClatchy were cancelling their AP wire contracts.
And we published two interviews with publishers seeking riches in the C-suite niche. Three executives from Forbes, including new chief executive Sherry Phillips, told me about its efforts to build communities of CMOs, CTOs and CEOs around its editorial products and events, with the goal of monetising their attention through direct-sold ads.
And, targeting a niche so specific it prompted Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford to email Ben Smith to double check we had it right, Semafor have launched a newsletter exclusive to CEOs of companies with $500m annual revenue. You can read my interview with the newsletter’s editor, former FT US news editor Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, here.
Have a great weekend.
Bron
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An iPhone with the Substack app is held in front of bills of money in various currencies. Picture: Photo For Everything/Substack
More than 50 newsletters earn $500,000+ on Substack: Exclusive new ranking
As of early January there are four Substacks which, based on the platform’s metrics alone, are making at least $1.2m a year.
Associated Press finds growing consumer audience for ‘fact-based’ journalism
Pace was keen to emphasise that the AP of today is a “multi-format, digital-first news report” producing photos, video, text, graphics, live video, data visualisation and interactive content.
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson explains move from FT to niche Semafor CEO newsletter
“The people inside this velvet rope are not the wannabes,” Edgecliffe-Johnson said. “They’re not the people aspiring to the C-suite, they’re not the people dreaming of one day maybe reaching the corner office. They’re the people who are there.”
How Forbes makes money: Business title’s leaders explain diversification strategy
“Everything we do, whether it’s written journalism or live journalism, is intended to make our readers, our audiences, our viewers wealthier and smarter.”
Also on Press Gazette:
Why synthetic market research is an untapped AI goldmine for news publishers
LGBTQ+ journalists set to leave Facebook over ‘dangerous’ new hate speech rules
‘Consent or pay’ model is OK for UK news publishers, ICO confirms
And elsewhere…
Substack advertising is turning writers into part-time sales reps
Katie Deighton, The Wall Street Journal
The New Yorker’s anxious 100th birthday celebration
Charlotte Klein, New York Magazine
The Ankler launches standalone trade publication on the creator economy
Sara Fischer, Axios
America is divided. It makes for tremendous content.
Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic
Developer creates infinite maze that traps AI training bots
Jason Koebler, 404 Media
How Newsweek, nearing nine-digit revenues, engineered an unlikely turnaround
Mark Stenberg and Paul Hiebert, Adweek
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