The Substack Superstar System | City Journal
Until recently, when a prominent writer like Andrew Sullivan lost his job for voicing controversial opinions, he had two options: write for the other side or fade into obscurity. But when Sullivan was fired from New York Magazine recently, he turned to Substack, a platform that lets authors publish and monetize a newsletter or sell standalone content directly to readers. Sullivan claims that he has more than 75,000 subscribers and is making more money than he did at New York.
He s not the first to turn to a newsletter. In May, chef Alison Roman started a Substack newsletter after leaving the New York Times under fire for criticizing two Asian women and using turmeric in a recipe without showing sufficient cultural sensitivity. Sometimes cancellation is not even necessary. Some writers, like Matt Taibbi, left Rolling Stone to write a paid newsletter because he wanted more independence.