Substack CEO Chris Best on the past, present and future of newsletters and digital subscription models

Reliable Sources

CNN

News

3.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris Best co-founded Substack in 2017. Now the company is powering thousands of newsletters and turning some writers into millionaires. Brian Stelter interviews Best about Substack's business model; the accompanying controversies; and the future of digital subscriptions. The goal, he says, is to"return control into the hands of readers and writers themselves," to "design systems and create spaces where great stuff is rewarded." To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Substack.
0:03.6	Everybody's heard of it at this point.
0:05.8	Almost everybody has an opinion about it.
0:08.6	Substack is starting to change the media business by letting writers and podcasters and
0:14.0	others establish direct relationships with paying subscribers.
0:19.5	It is nothing short of a phenomenon at this point.
0:23.3	But how much do you really know about Substack, about how it was founded, about what it's
0:28.3	intending to do and where it's going?
0:32.6	Those are some of the questions for this week's Reliable Sources podcast.
0:37.2	So let's hit the music.
0:40.2	I'm Brian Stelter and this weekly podcast is our chance to go more in depth talking with
0:45.6	media leaders and newsmakers about how the media world works, how the news gets made.
0:51.7	And this week we have a real media leader to talk with.
0:55.8	This best, the CEO of Substack.
1:00.4	Now maybe you're a little bit like me.
1:02.2	You might pay for a Substack newsletter or two.
1:05.5	You're familiar with the brand.
1:07.5	You've heard all the news coverage this year about how Substack is changing the news
1:12.1	business and how it's giving opportunities for writers and for opinion slingers and for
1:17.3	podcasters to create new relationships with consumers.
1:22.2	You might know something about it, but not all the nitty-gray details.
1:25.3	Well, that's certainly how I felt about Substack.
	...

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