Newsletters Should Be Step One for New Media Companies

Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of talk about the newsletter boom dying away. Things were rip-roaring when the pandemic was at its worse. Everyone was launching a newsletter, Substack was dropping six-figure advances, and for a minute there, I thought newsletters might become a top 10 industry in the United States.

There was also a lot of talk about how media companies would die because all of the best talent was going to leave to go solo. This was the existential crisis. “People don’t trust brands, they trust people” was the rallying cry. Let’s look at The New York Times, which now has 9.17 million paid subscribers. I think the brand’s fine.