Substack’s promise to be different than a newsroom is getting messy - The Verge
Substack prides itself on a light-handed moderation policy, promising writers editorial freedom. After an editor of the Forever Wars newsletter was fired for editing a post critical of the platform, writers are seeing the limits of Substack’s promise to them.
By most measures, Forever Wars should have been a Substack success story. The newsletter, which documents the war on terror, began last year after Substack cut a deal with a seasoned reporter to write on the platform, build an audience, and — if everything went well — launch a reader-supported venture that made the switch from newsroom to newsletter worth the gamble. Substack’s usual promise applied: if a writer wants to leave, they can, and it will be easy to do. And, in late July, a day after the expiration of a year-long deal, that’s what Spencer Ackerman did, moving Forever Wars to the newsletter platform Ghost as seamlessly as possible.
But the switch became far messier this week when Substack barreled through its standing promise to stay out of editorial decisions by firing Forever Wars editor Sam Thielman from other editing work he had been doing for various Substack writers. The offending action, per Substack, was that he edited Ackerman’s newest post on Ghost that was critical of Substack and the deal they struck. In other words: Substack was reacting not so differently than a disgruntled newsroom boss.
This kind of tension has been at the heart of debates over Substack’s place in publishing and journalism for the past two years. Substack, which positions itself as a cure for many of the ills plaguing the media industry, has vowed to moderate writers as little as possible, offer monetary and other benefits that eclipse what’s offered in most newsrooms, and provide the kind of stability for writers that is becoming increasingly rare. With Thielman’s firing, the image of safety and protection Substack offers writers is losing its sheen.
“It was a big hit immediately, and scary,” says Thielman, who initially didn’t publicly share news of the firing. “I was just kind of going to duck my head and apply for jobs and hope that they didn’t bad mouth me [behind closed doors].”
Substack sells itself as a powerful tool and platform for work that people want to read. But to entice journalists and writers to use the platform and publish regularly, Substack started making deals with select writers that offered some of the protections of traditional newsrooms. The most straightforward was a guaranteed income, often much more than what they could make at media outlets. Other perks included a dedicated editor, healthcare benefits, and legal support. The program was labeled Substack Pro, and the company formally announced the deals in March of last year.
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