The End of this Newsletter
Please unsubscribe and cancel paid subscriptions, or I will do it for you.
Hello Everyone,
As some of you know I’ve been struggling with a persistent case of Covid since around February 7th, 2024. It’s given me some time to review my Newsletter(s). I’ve come to some conclusions on how I wish to proceed writing.
The End of the Road
I hope you have enjoyed and gotten something from this Newsletter, Creator Economy Tips (you can still read the archives) and now Media Ops and Newsletter Economic, because starting today, February 21st, 2024, it it no more.
This was always my personal space to rant and a secret place I did not do marketing for.
I’ve decided to shutter my coverage of the decline of media and the Creator Economy and how to grow a Newsletter. Including my coverage of Substack, which was never really well received nor meant for very public consumption. It’s not because I’m no longer interested in these things, it’s due to the absurd saturation of Newsletters around this topic.
Critique of Newsletter Economy Profiteering
Substack’s divorce from the niche voices of Twitter/X has created an environment where Substack is degrading into a “wanna-be writer platform or a spiritual successor of Medium.” This means incredible niche Newsletters are churning from the platform while Newsletters about writing and Newsletter monetization and the culture of writing generally have been multiplying at an alarming rate, full of grifters and people who want to profit on the dream of others.
This is not something I’m too happy or excited about. I will be turning this Newsletter on a topic I’m more capable of demonstrating leadership in and in coverage more aligned with my emerging tech interests.
In a niche that is a little bit less generic and useful for my core readers. The Creator Economy and decline of media shows a reality where technology is eating both journalists, media jobs, and the public’s ability to cover niche topics including the instinct to local journalism, fiction, citizen journalism, neo-creators and hobbyist writers.
Basically everyone outside of gamified video creators who are slaves to algorithms that push them towards exaggerations, sentiment amplification, clickbait and YouTube behaviors that cheats the system for more visibility.
Substack’s over-reliance on paid subscriptions to the exclusions of other forms of monetization means it is not viable for many of the niches that once thrived on it including crypto, finance, investing and related topics that were and are more popular on Twitter/X. This is due to a significant subscription saturation and paywall overload period of greater consumer discretionary spending caution and selectivity.
Every single one of my Newsletters has shown a decrease in paid subscriptions over the past months.
Substack’s cloning of Twitter with Notes broke this relationship of discovery (between Twitter and Substack) on a fundamental level where we now have evidence of a major churn of Newsletters in related niches of this overlap.
If you are a Paid Subscriber, Please Cancel
The future of this Newsletter will be on an entirely different topic you may/will likely not be interested in.
In my writing on Substack I often and regrettably pivot topics due to the maximum publications Substack gives me (though it has promised me there is no limit, but there is for me).
This is to follow my active interests, as these are not profitable endeavors outside of my flagship Newsletter.
It is no longer worth my time to cover the future of media, the creator economy, or how to monetize a Newsletter. Moreover because this information is now easily accessible. Thanks for experiencing this journey through my lens, struggles and personal tribulations trying to make media and cover new media.
There are so many new agencies now focused on helping Newsletter scale with paid Ads, memes, video Ads and so forth, the meritocracy of growing a Newsletter has been utterly destroyed by these mechanics.
With so many grifters and gurus, it’s very off putting. The spectrum of new media is still interesting though and can easily be continued by avid and determined readers. It’s time to for me to bow out from these environments and failed Venture Capital experiments (related to the Creator Economy).
You can continue this coverage with others, such as and including:
Simon Owens
Brian Morrissey - the rebooting
Nathan Barry - his blog
David Perell - How I write
And so many others.
Remember to cancel your paid subscription (I will do this manually soon, if you don’t), and unsubscribe if you aren’t interesting in what I might be building next. No hard feelings.