a16z Podcast

So You Want to Launch a Newsletter: Tips From Substack Writers

Sep 17, 2020

Join Patrice Peck, a freelance journalist known for her COVID-focused newsletter, Zach Haigney, an acupuncturist illuminating the world of medicinal psychedelics, Edith Zimmerman, an artist sharing life through comics, and Lenny Rachitsky, a former Airbnb product manager, as they discuss their newsletter journeys. They delve into the nuances of audience engagement, the decision-making ballet of monetization, and the challenges of standing out in a crowded market. Their insights highlight the transformative power of independent voices in today's media landscape.

34:36

Creator website

Episode guests

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Episode notes

Intro

2min

Empowering Voices: The Journey of Newsletters in Underrepresented Communities

2min

From Jobs to Newsletters: A Transformative Journey

5min

Navigating Expertise and Creativity in Newsletter Writing

2min

Navigating Paid Newsletters

11min

The Evolution of Media: From Traditional Journalism to Niche Newsletters

2min

Navigating the Newsletter Landscape

10min

Diverse Perspectives in Newsletter Culture

3min

This episode, part one in a two-part series on the Creator Economy, explores the process and economics behind creating an independent newsletter. In this candid conversation, host Lauren Murrow talks with four Substack writers—an artist, a technologist, a journalist, and a clinical researcher-turned-psychedelics scholar—about how to find and foster an audience, the calculus behind going paid versus unpaid, the pressure to produce, and financial benchmarks for making a living from newsletter writing.

The pandemic has prompted a reckoning within traditional media and, in parallel, a surge in the newsletter ecosystem. On Substack, readership and active writers both doubled from January through April. The newsletter hosting platform now has more than 100,000 paying subscribers.

This episode reveals the behind-the-scenes experiences of four newsletter creators, all of whom launched roughly within the past year:

Software engineer Lenny Rachitsky, most recently a growth product manager at Airbnb, whose tech-focused dispatch is called Lenny’s Newsletter.

Artist and writer Edith Zimmerman, creator of the Drawing Links newsletter, which chronicles her life and musings through comic-style illustrations.

Zach Haigney, an acupuncturist and researcher whose newsletter, The Trip Report, explores the science, policy, and business behind medicinal psychedelics.

And Patrice Peck, a freelance journalist—previously a staff writer at BuzzFeed—whose newsletter, Coronavirus News for Black Folks, highlights the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on the black community.

Listen to the end of the episode to hear more about Patrice, Zach, Edith, and Lenny's top newsletter recommendations:

Patrice’s newsletter recs:

The Intersection by Adriana Lacy

Beauty IRL by Darian Symone Harvin

Carefree Black Girl by Zeba Blay

Maybe Baby by Haley Nahman

Zach’s newsletter recs:

Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Sinocism by Bill Bishop

A Media Operator by Jacob Cohen Donnelly

Off the Chain by Anthony Pompliano

The Weekly Dish by Andrew Sullivan