The slow death of Substack

When Substack launched, nine years ago, working journalists thought this new platform might manage the unthinkable: make their profession economically sustainable. That hasn't happened. Last week, one of Substack's most successful journalists, Taylor Lorenz, disclosed on Substack Notes (the platform's micro-blogging stream) that her paid subscriptions had "fallen off a cliff" — even while her follower count was "skyrocketing". Lorenz has some 200,000 followers, an order of magnitude more than probably 99% of the other writers on Substack, and more internet fame than probably 99.9% percent of us. And yet, on the most basic metric of Substack success, she's failing.