Start a publication with no overhead.

It’s free to sign up and start publishing. Cover a beat with zero startup expenses, and no tech or design costs.

Prioritize your audience, not advertisers.

The subscription model guarantees editorial independence. Reporters need to be loyal only to their audience and can focus on quality more than inundation.

Get paid to do what you love.

When you're ready, you can add paid subscriptions and keep 90% of the revenue. Top reporters are building teams and earning six figures on Substack each year.

The Charlotte Ledger

Tony Mecia, a Charlotte native, had only 300 Twitter followers and a paper rolodex of local newsmakers when he started publishing on Substack. Today, he’s on pace for $175,000 in annual revenue.

City Hall Watcher

Matt Elliott covers Toronto politics. In two years, he reached 900 paying subscribers. Substack replaces money he used to make selling one-off stories to other outlets — money he is happy to have, since it’s more consistent.

The Edinburgh Minute

Michael MacLeod covers the Scottish capital via this daily curation of news and events for more than 20,000 subscribers. He’s now launched The London Minute also, and inspired many more publishers to launch similar Substacks covering their communities.

Paulicéia

Gaía Passarelli decided to leave her job as the editor of BuzzFeed Brasil to start Paulicéia and write about the people who work to create culture in São Paulo.

Importantville

Adam Wren has covered Indiana politics on Substack since 2018. His audience includes local lobbyists as well as national reporters who want to keep tabs on what’s happening in his home state.

The Line

Jen Gerson started The Line, an independent collection of Canadian newspaper and magazine writers, on Substack to be free from corporate media structures and turn a publication that she “can’t make anywhere else” into a reality.