How to Write a Cogent, Useful Think Piece

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I've only been doing this for two plus years, but yeah. You got to like it. And you got to be writing about stuff that you actually can add value one way or the other. My approach, like, I don't do what, you know, like Ben Thompson should touch, should take her three or four days a week. He'll have a sort of a think piece. It just doesn't like, it doesn't, isn't where I think the value add is going to be. So that's why I do my format more.

Bill Bishop likes to make clear he’s not a journalist. Instead, he’s a China analyst who brings his deep understanding of the country to an English-speaking language through his newsletter, Sinocism. In 2017, Bill became the “original Substacker” after teaming up with Substack’s co-founders to be the first newsletter on the platform.

On this week’s episode of The Rebooting Show, Bill and I discuss his independent path, and how a subscription model has created different dynamics as opposed to his experiences in the dot-com era as a co-founder of Marketwatch. What’s telling to me is that Bill is also now considering advertising. The Substack model of “only ads” doesn’t make much sense long term for most writers. Even if they convert 10% of their audience, they’re making no money from 90%. Most businesses don’t operate that way.