Newsletter start-up Substack has reached 1m paying subscribers, underlining the growing power of à la carte journalism by individual writers as a business model for news.
Substack offers writers a tech platform to self-publish and create their own freelance business, charging a fee for access to their newsletters. After print advertising collapsed with the rise of the internet, both news companies and individual writers began turning to subscriptions, selling their work directly to readers.
The number of people paying to subscribe to a Substack newsletter has risen from 250,000 last December to 1m this November. Substack, which launched four years ago, has 73 employees.