The Substack Stampede

Lately, it feels like a week doesn’t go by without a high-profile journalist announcing their exit from a traditional newsroom. 

On Friday, The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson—one of the magazine’s most recognizable voices—announced he was departing to launch an independent Substack newsletter. “I love The Atlantic, and I’ll remain a contributing writer there,” he wrote. “But after almost two decades at one publication, I wanted to write for myself... I want to know what my thinking and writing is like if I lean into a more independent and personal writing life."

Thompson joins a growing roster of prominent journalists leaving legacy media in favor of independent platforms, most notably Substack. Recent departures include Jim Acosta, Jennifer Rubin, Terry Moran, and Chuck Todd—big names with built-in audiences, now betting those followers will pay to read them directly.

“If you’re a media operator, you should not be having a summer Friday today,” Feed Me author Emily Sundberg posted Friday. “You should be having an emergency meeting about talent retention in the time of Substack.”

It’s not just Substack, of course (Status is published on Beehiiv). But the term Substack has become shorthand for a wider shift: disillusioned talent exiting traditional media amid layoffs, shrinking budgets, and institutional crisis. In exchange, they’re chasing creative freedom, direct reader relationships, and—at least in theory—better pay.

Some have clearly succeeded and paved the way for others. Matt Yglesias, one of Substack’s early stars, earns seven figures in revenue from his Slow Boring newsletter. So does Heather Cox Richardson with Letters From an American and Janice Min with The Ankler. Earlier this month, Substack chief Chris Best said “more than 50 people” are earning at least $1 million a year on the platform. But for every breakout hit, there are many more grinding away, fighting for attention in an increasingly saturated newsletter market.

“I had a first-mover advantage,” Sundberg told Status last week about her decision to start Feed Me in 2020. “But I also had nothing to lose because nobody knew who I was."

The barriers to entry for a newsletter are low, but so are the guarantees. Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie said this spring that the platform had surpassed 5 million paid subscriptions. And on Tuesday, technology journalist Eric Newcomer reported (yes, on his Substack) that those subscriptions add up to roughly $450 million in total network receipts, or $45 million in annual recurring revenue for the company.

The topline numbers sound impressive. But they also suggest what many insiders suspect: while a few creators earn seven-figure paydays, the vast majority make much less. Some will surely succeed; but many others will surely struggle.

That’s because it’s one thing to convince someone to follow you on social media or occasionally read a free post, and quite another to persuade them to pull out their credit card and commit to paying for your work month after month. Consumers are bombarded with subscription pitches every day, from streaming services to lifestyle apps to legacy newsrooms, and many have reached a point of fatigue. Even loyal readers often hesitate at the paywall, not because they don’t value the work, but because it’s one more expense in an increasingly subscription-saturated world.

Getting people to pay for journalism, especially when so much content is available at no cost online, requires more than name recognition or a large social media following. It requires a sustained effort to create value and consistently deliver something that feels indispensable to readers. That means finding ways to stand out in a sea of inbox clutter, whether it is by way of must-read scoops or essential analysis. And unlike in a traditional newsroom, where various teams handle distribution, promotion, customer service, and design, the solo creator has to wear all those hats.

Then there’s the emotional side. Many describe the stress of tracking subscriptions, balancing editorial pressures with commercial pressures, and feeling isolated all at the same time without a team. “I actually got some advice on this,” Tara Palmeri, who exited Puck earlier this year, told Todd on her YouTube show. “And they were like: give it six months and chill the F out.” Launching her own video and newsletter publication, she added, can feel like being stuck on “a treadmill.”

And yet, that treadmill doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon as more journalists flock to the newsletter space, adding more competition for attention and pocketbooks. And for every journalist who goes solo, others inside legacy media are watching—quietly calculating the risk, the rewards, and whether it might be time to make the leap.

“I don’t know if the gold rush days of going independent have peaked,” Sundberg told Status. “But I wouldn’t want to be starting now.”