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Substack Is Having a Moment—Again. But Time Is Running Out
Substack Is Having a Moment—Again. But Time Is Running Out

WIRED

time13 hours ago

  • Politics
  • WIRED

Substack Is Having a Moment—Again. But Time Is Running Out

Jun 27, 2025 2:29 PM While star reporters continue to flock to Substack, subscription fatigue is only getting worse. The Substack homepage on a smartphone. Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Photograph:Before June 8, the skilled and respected ABC News television journalist Terry Moran was neither a household name nor political lightning rod. That changed abruptly when Moran posted on X that Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller was 'a world-class hater,' followed by an addendum that the president was a hater as well. (The post was later taken down.) While the statements were certainly defendable, they apparently violated ABC policy, and Moran was suspended, then dismissed. Moran, though, had one move left. On June 11, he started writing on Substack. Moran was joining a movement based on a dream: Journalists could start a Substack newsletter and garner subscription fees that would match or exceed their previous salaries. And they would be editorially liberated! No editors to screw up copy, no censorship from bosses when advertisers complain, no corporate overlord to fire you when you say the president of the United States is a hater. Substack says that some people are indeed living the dream. CEO Chris Best recently boasted in a speech that 'more than 50' of its users were pulling in a million dollars in revenue. As more journalists get pushed out of their jobs, get fed up with their bosses, or just want to breathe the cool air of freedom, they now have what appears to be a viable escape hatch. Recently a lot of them are taking advantage of it. Jeff Bezos has been good to Substack: The Washington Post editorial page's apparent recent disinterest in stopping democracy from dying has led popular opinion writer Jennifer Rubin to start a publication called The Contrarian, and censored editorial Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes now publishes on Substack as well. Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hassan started his own publication. Even Chuck Todd has gone indie. You might be tempted to think that the Substack revolution is shaking up the foundations of journalism, agreeing with Substack star Emily Sundberg that newsroom leaders everywhere should be barring their doors to prevent further defections. Well, not so fast. The Substack model may work very well for a few, but it's not so easy to march in and match a salary. Readers have to pay a high price for a voice that they once enjoyed in a publication they subscribe to. And writers have to get used to the idea that the breadth of their wisdom is limited to a small percentage of patrons. Is Substack sustainable for writers addressing a general audience? Just in the last week or so, a cluster of critics have been publishing that the platform may be on shaky ground. It started when Eric Newcomer—posting on his own successful Substack—celebrated Substack's recent influx of big names and reported that the platform told investors it was taking in $45 million a year in revenue. He claimed it was seeking a new investment round which would value the company at $700 million. (Substack did not confirm those numbers.) This is an essay from the latest edition of Steven Levy's Plaintext newsletter. SIGN UP for Plaintext to read the whole thing, and tap Steven's unique insights and unmatched contacts for the long view on tech. But then Dylan Byers of Puck (a publication on Substack) looked at those numbers and wondered whether the bottom line valuation was actually less than in the previous rounds. Byers, like other critics, charged that once you get past the few real big earners, the platform was full of low-flying mediocrities: 'The truth is that the vast majority of the content on Substack is boring, amateurish or batshit crazy,' he wrote. His conclusion was that Substack was a media company trying to be valued as a tech company, which is a familiar fail point for similar companies. (WIRED itself once failed at an IPO for that very reason.) Ana Marie Cox, who once enjoyed blogging fame as Wonkette, is even grimmer, writing in her newsletter that Substack 'is as unstable as a SpaceX launch.' She wasn't impressed with the more recent influx of name writers. 'How many Terry Morans does Substack have room for?' she wrote. 'Is there even a public appetite for a dozen Terry Morans, each independently Terry Moran-ing in his own newsletter?' Cox is referring to subscription fatigue, which is something I think of every time a sign-up page pops up when opening a new Substack. Typically, Substack pros solicit a monthly fee of $5-10 or an annual rate of $50-150. Usually there's a free tier of content, but journalists who hope to make at least part of their livelihood on Substack save the good stuff for paid customers. Compared to subscribing to full-fledged publications, this is a terrible value proposition. After leaving The Atlantic, celebrated writer Derek Thompson started a Substack that cost $80 a year—that's one penny more than a digital subscription to the magazine he just left! (The Atlantic will probably spend $300,000 to replace him with someone else worth reading.) It doesn't take too many of those subscriptions to match the cost of The New York Times, which probably has 100 journalists as good as Substack writers, and you get Wordle to boot. Those fees can pile up. I asked one news-junkie pal of mine how many indie subs she was paying for, and a quick audit showed 31 subs costing over $2,000 per year. But my friend is the exception who actually pays. The vast majority of subscribers on Substack don't. The cost emphasizes the non-egalitarian nature of the independent concept. While I love the idea of liberated journalists speaking out, the fact is that compared to a bundled package known as a publication, the lone-voice model monetizes by delivering full content only to patrons who can afford it. It's a downside for writers, who typically want to reach wider audiences. 'I'm guessing a lot [those writers] don't like not being in the broader conversation on a regular basis, even if they're getting paid more,' says M.G. Siegler, who writes tech commentary on Spyglass, his own free-and-pay indie column.(You will note that this newsletter, and this writer, are delivered to you as part of a larger legacy media stack, That's a conscious choice.) Substack prefers to dwell on its success stories. Look what happened to Casey Newton. In 2020, he left the Verge and started Platformer, and it's still going strong with a six-figure number of subscribers, some thousands of whom actually pay him real money for all his posts. 'Platformer succeeded beyond my expectations,' he told me. 'It let me buy a house in San Francisco. I'd honestly never thought I'd be able to do that.' But Newton no longer publishes on Substack. Platformer is now on another platform called Ghost. It's a choice that a number of successful indie journalists have made, mainly because alternatives don't take a tenth of revenues. (Newton left Substack mainly because he said he was unhappy that the founders didn't sufficiently condemn Nazi-oriented content.) Substack says that it uniquely offers journalists access to a broad community and has offered a social-media-like feed that's sort of an internal Twitter, but I don't sense that those features have taken off. Other potential Substackers, like former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, have chosen a platform called Beehiiv. Unless they already have huge, passionate followings, newly independent journalists have a tough time rounding up enough subscribers to pay for even a fraction of a decent legacy media job. Newton says that early adopters like him had an easier time. 'Substack was shiny and new, and people were warming up to the idea,' he explains. He says that the decline of Twitter is another disadvantage for newer Substack writers. 'There was nothing like Twitter in the old days for finding new customers,' he says. 'Taking that away has made it meaningfully harder to promote their stuff.' Even Sundberg, who advised legacy media to sound the alarm about the Substack exodus, told a writer for Status that the window of opportunity for newbies might be closing. 'I wouldn't want to be starting now,' she says. For its part, Substack seems to be pivoting away from its roots. I first met the founders when they were going through Y Combinator's boot-camp-like experience, and they eagerly pitched me on their crusade to improve journalism. But now the Substack 'about' page promotes the site as 'the home for great culture,' describing itself as 'a new media app … [where] you can discover world-class video, podcasts, and writing from a diverse set of creators.' Note that 'writing' comes last in that hierarchy of creator output. Does Substack really think that its creator videos can compete with TikTok and Meta? (Substack did not make its executives available to comment.) Meanwhile, Moran is off to the races, posting anti-Trump comments without worrying about his job. He has over 100,000 subscribers, though it's not clear how many pay him. I read his comments and view his video posts via his free tier. No way will I pay him: I've already got ABC News on my cable, paid subscriptions to nearly a dozen publications and, yes, a bunch of Substack subs that I or my wife get billed for yearly or monthly. These include James Fallows, Jonathan Alter, Joyce Wadler, and Gregg Easterbrook, during the months he writes Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Even though the price is high for one single voice, I find those writers worth the cost. But I wish the legacy publications they once wrote for still employed them so I wouldn't have to pay a la carte. Don't miss future subscriber-only editions of this column. Subscribe to WIRED (50% off for Plaintext readers) today.

‘It wasn't a drunk tweet': Terry Moran defends Stephen Miller ‘hater' post that led to his ABC News firing
‘It wasn't a drunk tweet': Terry Moran defends Stephen Miller ‘hater' post that led to his ABC News firing

Yahoo

time19-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

‘It wasn't a drunk tweet': Terry Moran defends Stephen Miller ‘hater' post that led to his ABC News firing

Terry Moran is speaking out not only on the fateful tweets that resulted in ABC News firing him after 28 years of service, but he's also pushing back on the network's claim that his contract was set to expire and therefore made it easier for the news outlet to release him. In Monday interviews with both The New York Times and The Bulwark, the veteran correspondent was unapologetic over the social media post in which he called Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, a 'world-class hater,' claiming it was an 'accurate and true' observation. He also swatted away suggestions that he was intoxicated when he sent out his late-night screed about Miller and Trump. 'It wasn't a drunk tweet,' he told the Times while flashing what they described as a 'lopsided grin' during their Zoom call. According to Moran, who was quickly suspended by ABC News over the since-deleted tweet, the post came about during a 'normal family night' after he took a 'meditative' stroll through the woods with the family dog. 'I was thinking about our country, and what's happening, and just turning it over in my mind,' he said, adding that he decided to send out the tweet following a family dinner and movie. 'I wrote it, and I said, 'That's true.'' Within hours of the post, the White House demanded that the network take action over the 'absolutely vile smear,' urging ABC News to suspend or fire Moran. With right-wing media jumping on board the outrage train, the network announced that it had placed the longtime anchor and reporter on suspension. Two days later, citing what it said 'was a clear violation of ABC News policies,' the network announced that Moran was out. At the same time, a network spokesperson asserted that Moran was at the end of his contract, and 'based on his recent post' ABC News 'made the decision not to renew.' Moran, however, is disputing that characterization. Telling the Times it was 'incorrect,' he claimed that the network was 'bailing' on an oral agreement to extend his contract for another three years. 'We had a deal,' he added. Moran said that his lawyers are now in discussions with the network over the terms of his exit and severance package. A representative for ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moran, who announced shortly after his termination that he had joined Substack, said that he's already surpassed 90,000 new subscribers. This also includes thousands who have purchased paid subscriptions, which run $5 a month or $50 annually. With many of his old ABC News colleagues reportedly shocked and outraged over his tweets, which Miller described as a 'full public meltdown,' Moran didn't directly address whether he felt that his social media posts made it more difficult for them to report on the administration. 'If they want to reach out, I'm happy to talk about that, but I'm not going to speak in the abstract,' he told the Times. In a separate conversation with The Bulwark's Tim Miller, which was livestreamed Monday morning, Moran continued to defend the post that resulted in his termination while also pushing back on the notion of 'both-sides' journalism. Specifically, he said that journalists shouldn't feel that they have to give up their roles as citizens. 'Your job is not to be objective,' he told Miller. 'What you have to be is fair and accurate. I would say that, while very hot, is an observation that is accurate and true.' With attention being placed on his political affiliation amid the fiery tweets about the Trump administration, Moran described himself as a 'Hubert Humphrey Democrat' before addressing the backlash to his posts. 'I was rocked, clearly, and full of fear and I realized that this was going to be a very serious situation and had to stand up and deal with it,' he said. In his conversation with the Times, Moran noted that while he 'thought it would hit a nerve,' he was still surprised that it quickly snowballed to him being fired. 'I wrote it because I thought it was true,' he declared to Miller. He also observed that his termination 'looked like a business decision' and he had become 'bad business,' prompting him to contemplate about the network's past capitulation to the president. Saying that he wasn't initially worried when ABC's parent company Disney paid Trump $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit involving anchor George Stephanopoulos, he conceded he 'should have been' concerned at the time. Meanwhile, Moran also discussed his high-profile and newsmaking interview with Trump, which took place just six weeks before the network fired him. According to the former Nightline anchor, his selection was 'accidental,' and it was apparent that the administration refused to sit down with other journalists at the network. 'I was kind of low man on the totem pole, and some of the others were knocked off,' he said. 'It was clear that I was not the first choice there.'During that interview, which featured the president demanding that Moran agree with his false assertion that Kilmar Abrego Garcia literally has 'MS-13' tattooed on his hand, Trump repeatedly suggested that he 'chose' Moran in hopes that he wouldn't challenge the president. 'They're giving you the big break of a lifetime, you know, you're doing the interview,' Trump said at one point. 'I picked you because, frankly, I never heard of you, but that's OK… but you're not being very nice.'

Fired ABC News journalist stands by his post criticizing Trump and adviser
Fired ABC News journalist stands by his post criticizing Trump and adviser

The Guardian

time17-06-2025

  • Politics
  • The Guardian

Fired ABC News journalist stands by his post criticizing Trump and adviser

A journalist who lost his job at ABC News after describing top White House aide Stephen Miller as someone 'richly endowed with the capacity for hatred' has said he published that remark on social media because he felt it was 'true'. 'It was something that was in my heart and mind,' the network's former senior national correspondent Terry Moran said Monday on The Bulwark political podcast. 'And I would say I used very strong language deliberately.' Moran's comments to Bulwark host Tim Miller about standing by his remarks came a little more than a week after he wrote on X that Stephen Miller – the architect of Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies – 'eats his hate'. 'His hatreds are his spiritual nourishment,' Moran's post read, in part. He added that the president 'is a world-class hater. But his hatred [is] only a means to an end, and that end [is] his own glorification'. Moran subsequently deleted the post, which had been published shortly after midnight on 8 June. ABC News initially suspended Moran pending an investigation, citing a policy against 'subjective attacks on others'. But then the network announced it would not be renewing his employment contract, effectively dismissing him. Among the polarizing reactions which stemmed from Moran's deleted post was one from Stephen Miller, a white nationalist, which read: 'The most important fact about Terry's full meltdown is what it shows about the corporate press in America. For decades, the privileged anchors and reporters narrating and gatekeeping our society have been radicals adopting a journalist's pose. Terry pulled off his mask.' But Moran on Monday maintained that he is 'a proud centrist' who opposes 'the viciousness and the intolerance that you feel when we argue politics'. Tim Miller asked Moran whether he was drunk at the time of the post. Moran replied that it had actually been 'a normal family night' that culminated with him putting his children to bed before he wrote out his thoughts about Stephen Miller. 'I typed it out and I looked at it and I thought 'that's true',' said Moran, who had been at ABC since 1997. 'And I hit send. 'I thought that's a description of the public man that I'm describing.' Some of Trump's most high-profile allies took verbal aim at Moran before his departure from ABC News was announced. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox News and said Moran's post was 'unacceptable and unhinged', and JD Vance said it was a 'vile smear'. Nearly six months earlier, ABC News had agreed to pay $15m to a Trump presidential foundation or museum to settle a defamation case that he brought after the network's anchor George Stephanopoulos incorrectly asserted that Trump had been found 'liable for rape' in a lawsuit filed by columnist E Jean Carroll. Trump had actually been found liable for sexually abusing Carroll. Moran by Monday had joined the Substack publishing platform as an independent journalist. He told Tim Miller that he was hoping to interview members of the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio. Members of that community were politically villainized after Trump boosted debunked stories about Haitian immigrants eating pets ahead of his victory in November's presidential election. Moran alluded to how the vast majority of the Haitian immigrants in Springfield were there legally through a temporary protected status that had been allocated to them due to violent unrest in their home country. They generally arrived in Springfield to work in local produce packaging and machining factories whose owners were experiencing a labor shortage after the Covid-19 pandemic. And many are facing the prospect of being forced to leave the US by 3 August after the Trump administration decided to end legal visa programs for Haitians such as humanitarian parole and temporary protected status. 'The town had come to depend on them,' Moran said. 'That town was falling flat and now had risen.'

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