with Substack, readers choose what they see. A reader makes a conscious decision about which writers to invite into their inboxes, and which ones to support with money. 

Substack’s key metric is not engagement. Our key metric is writer revenue. We make money only when Substack writers make money, by taking a 10% cut of the revenue they make from subscriptions.

Our entire business depends on holding writers’ trust, which is exemplified by how easy it is for a writer to leave the platform.

When engagement is the holy metric, trustworthiness doesn’t matter. What matters more than anything else is whether or not the user is stirred.

what we’re actually trying to do is subvert the power of the attention economy. We want people, not engagement-motivated platforms, to ultimately be in control. We think this path offers a better future for writing specifically, and for culture generally.

We believe that subscriptions are better than advertising.

We believe in letting people choose who to trust, not having click-maximizing algorithms choose for them

We believe that the prevailing media ecosystem is in disrepair and that the internet can be used to build something better

We believe that hosting a broad range of views is good for democracy.

These beliefs inform how we have designed Substack, which is why, for instance, we don’t support advertising in the product despite many calls to do so, and it’s why we will never use algorithms that optimize for engagement.

We’re proud of this range and strongly believe that this breadth strengthens the discourse.