Cara Swisher: I think Wordel probably was a nice little thing to bring people into the site at very low cost. Although I'd love to see the numbers. Meredith Lovey is not sharing them with me, even though we get along super well. She also thought it was funny that Chris and Hamish did not take the bait on Elon.
Last week, Elon kicked off a feud with both Substack and his very own former Twitter Files ingénue (and Substack star), Matt Taibbi. Kara and Nayeema break down the battle of the bros before turning to an interview with those at the center of the storm: Substack co-founders Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie.
The two address questions about Substack Notes (which Elon dubbed, and they deny, is a “Twitter clone”), the challenging business model of newsletters and their stance on free expression. Somehow, they manage to avoid uttering the name “Elon.” Kara doesn’t shy away though.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema
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