You're Doing Work With Ben Thompson, You Know?

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Tashi: It seems to me Ben Thompson has pretty much gone down the Ben Thompson route. He's decided it's like, you could imagine there would be people who would come to him and be like, "Hey, let's make this like a bigger publishing brand" Tashi: I think he's taking a little bit because I know you're doing work with him. This is a group thing. Very authentic.

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.