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AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

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Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#121

Post by tptacek »

sincerely wrote: post #118
tptacek wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider Googling for "the rule of goats".

Haha, that's a pretty funny line , I haven't seen that before. However if it's a representation of a hardline anti-irony/satire stance we will have to agree to disagree there. I'm all for holding accountable people whose bad behavior has gone ignored in the past but I don't think that extends to what is (to me and many others) purely artistic expression.

There's two questions at play. The first is whether or not there's any veracity to what's been written. The Paste article strongly suggests there isn't. The second is what the actual writing suggests. Even if Neil Strauss (for example) had fabricated virtually everything in The Game, the Rule Of Goats still very much applies, because The Game depicts its brand of goat-fucking favorably.

I don't have an answer for The eXile, but I get why someone would have a problem with it regardless of what Ames and Taibbi actually did.

https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/942136384172695552

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#122

Post by ljharb »

cjbest wrote: post #27
aphextron wrote: post #15

How did you guys settle on "Substack"? I only ask because Substack is a really well known handle for one of the most prolific Node ecosystem contributors, and I feel like you guys are going to run into a lot of SEO pain dealing with that.

We subscribe to the pg take on naming. We went through a couple of options we like, and Substack was the one we could get the .com for. It's a Stack for Subscription publishing. We didn't realize about the node developer with the Twitter handle; hopefully it's different enough that it's not a pain for either of us. See http://www.paulgraham.com/name.html

substack isn't a startup, it's a human being. Regardless of something being pg's "take", that doesn't make what you've done here ethical, or good for the ecosystem, or good for your company. (Separately, if you don't have the .com OR the twitter handle, change your name)

Change your name, how about?

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#123

Post by cjbest »

mirimir wrote: post #117
cjbest wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think micropayments don't work. Even if you make payment as completely frictionless as possible, there is still the mental overhead of deciding to pay. As the dollar amount gets smaller and smaller, the "pain of deciding to pay" becomes a higher fraction of the total pain, and the economics don't make sense. Plus, if you just charge for each click or whatever, you get the bad incentives of clickbait back. Subscript…

Those are excellent arguments. That's how I read fiction. Whenever an author I like publishes a book, I buy it. But that's not how I read journalism. Many years ago, I subscribed to the local paper, The NY Times, and a few magazines. Now I browse forums and Google stuff. I like many writers. So many that I can't imagine committing $x per week to each of them. As you say, paying per article leads to clickbait. But som…

I buy that. I think some people will subscribe to an individual journalist that they really like, or covers something especially important to them, but others may need some kind of federation/bundling in the long run.

I'd prefer to see a world where that happens bottom up -- writers choose to band together with other writers they trust. But we'll see :)

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#124

Post by styfle »

This is the first I’ve heard of Substack.

I thought I recognized that name and then I remembered....there’s a developer[0] who has written many packages on npm[1] with the same name: substack

I’ll have to check this out just because of the name :)

[0]: https://github.com/substack

[1]: https://www.npmjs.com/~substack

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#125

Post by cjbest »

styfle wrote: post #124

This is the first I’ve heard of Substack. I thought I recognized that name and then I remembered....there’s a developer[0] who has written many packages on npm[1] with the same name: substack I’ll have to check this out just because of the name :) [0]: https://github.com/substack [1]: https://www.npmjs.com/~substack

Just to avoid any confusion: we are not affiliated with James Halliday, the developer who uses the Github/Twitter handle substack.

(Though now that I look at it, I definitely respect his work, especially minimist)

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#126

Post by JacobJans »

I make my living running ad-supported websites/newsletters. I always like the idea of getting away from ads, and relying on direct support from my audience. I am good at building email lists.

My business model currently depends on the predictability I've developed with the ads on my site. Do you have any advice for transitioning away from an ad based newsletter to a subscription service?

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#127

Post by systemfault »

cjbest wrote: post #27
aphextron wrote: post #15

How did you guys settle on "Substack"? I only ask because Substack is a really well known handle for one of the most prolific Node ecosystem contributors, and I feel like you guys are going to run into a lot of SEO pain dealing with that.

We subscribe to the pg take on naming. We went through a couple of options we like, and Substack was the one we could get the .com for. It's a Stack for Subscription publishing. We didn't realize about the node developer with the Twitter handle; hopefully it's different enough that it's not a pain for either of us. See http://www.paulgraham.com/name.html

You knew what you were doing, there's no way you haven't done your research before taking that name. You also knew that YC always had a culture of developers and you still went through with it... alienating the developer community. That said, there's still time to make it right... You could probably give the domain name to the "real" substack and find a new and probably better, name.

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#128

Post by walterbell »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #75

Hi Matt, this is something that has interested me for personal and professional reasons. I've see a range of solutions from podcasting, youtube channels, self publishing, patreon, and independent companies (thinking TPM and their subscription model). It seems like a lot of the problem is the ad based revenue model, and the absolute bottom falling out text ad pricing combined with the unsuitability of video format to…

(random HN commenter opinion)

“Networking” and “cross pollination discovery of authors and readers” == community.

Community and free speech works with balanced diversity, where no one group can overwhelm another’s speech, especially during early childhood phases of a community’s development, before norms have emerged for the community to defend itself against threats external or internal.

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#129

Post by tobr »

styfle wrote: post #124

This is the first I’ve heard of Substack. I thought I recognized that name and then I remembered....there’s a developer[0] who has written many packages on npm[1] with the same name: substack I’ll have to check this out just because of the name :) [0]: https://github.com/substack [1]: https://www.npmjs.com/~substack

This was confusing, I thought this was an AMA with James Halliday.

Re: AMA with Substack and Matt Taibbi about a new business model for journalism

#130

Post by internet_jockey »

JacobJans wrote: post #126

I make my living running ad-supported websites/newsletters. I always like the idea of getting away from ads, and relying on direct support from my audience. I am good at building email lists. My business model currently depends on the predictability I've developed with the ads on my site. Do you have any advice for transitioning away from an ad based newsletter to a subscription service?

Clear and honest messaging to your readers about why you're doing this and what the benefits will be for them. Also: let's talk? You can email us at hello at substack dot com
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