Far from being a problematic competitor, Substack is proving “very helpful” to publishers with their own newsletters by proving readers’ willingness to pay.
That is the view of Sarah Ebner, the head of newsletters at the Financial Times who previously held the same role at The Telegraph.
Asked at the PPA Festival in London last week whether the FT had been impacted by the rise of Substack and other platforms adding to the competition for people’s time, Ebner said: “I actually think Substack’s been very helpful to newsletters. I think it’s made people even beyond newsletters realise how important they are: ‘oh my god, there’s all these people who are interested in reading other people’s newsletters — oh, and they’ll pay’.”
