Funny, as a fellow free-rider, I have noticed the throttling and limiting of engagement of my content, as well as subscribers being culled without getting notifications of cancelations (all you can get as a free 'stack).
Now I know why. Advertising will be my red line. Not sure if I will just let it die, or if I will take my ball and go to Ghost (self hosted, but then I would have to pay for the Mailgun service for delivery), or just turn on paid subscriptions.
I always knew their model sucked, but this will be no bueno.
.
And, pardon the language, but Fuck both Ackman and Stephens sideways with chainsaws.
All that and this too; advertising kills the site. Oh, it makes money for the investors. But for me and others like me who want to consume something more than sound bites and nibbles to inform our worlds, it merely constitutes more of the visual clutter we navigate daily. Everything loads more slowly until it's no fun at all.
I used to love an online mag called The Root until they ruined it. Now it's just an ad platform for expensive, bespoke garbage that I'd never buy anyway.
There should be some kind of sponsored platforms for substack. Public funding like... never mind.
That’s why I might go the self funded route and eat the $500 a year.
The problem is that Notes is the killer app for people to find you. Ghost has something but it is really terrible. I do not want to do any lead farming to find people to subscribe
Exactly! You don't want to be distracted from writing by being obliged (by necessity of course) to fish for an audience and why TF should you hire a full-time person to do it for you, right?
I knew Heather Cox Richardson's stack was the biggest, but I am surprised about how quickly the revenue drops off. The chart is from 2023, and I know the Bulwark has grown a lot, but so has HCR.
Wow! The revenue drop-off point is steep enough to induce headaches and nosebleed. This is the point that got me in the beginning of the article:
"Google and Meta potentially owe $12 billion to publishers and that small publishers that rely on traffic from Meta have lost between 20% - 30% of their audiences."
When Bill Ackman set up his hedge fund in 2004, he named it Pershing Square Capital Management. It was named after the restaurant where he and a few of his buddies would meet over breakfast or lunch to plot out there strategies. It's right across 42nd Street from Grand Central Station, so it's a very convenient place for Manhattanites, especially those living on Park Avenue, to meet with people commuting in from Connecticut or Westchester County. We occasionally take Metro North to Grand Central and meet friends there when they can only be with us a short time. Bill Ackman ain't leaving New York any time soon. 1) He'd never admit that HE couldn't afford to keep a place in Manhattan and 2) if Mamdani manages to crank up his taxes until he leaves, the city would be a better place.
"Sometimes the public is going to side with a mayoral candidate who doesn’t blow smoke up billionaires’ asses. That isn’t a crisis of Democracy. It’s kind of the point." Thank you for wording it as clearly and directly as it is when people try to muddy the water! It's outrageous journalists act at though it's a *bad* sign if someone doesn't kiss billionaires' asses
When Mayor Bloomberg raised taxes after 9/11, he stated flat out that billionaires always say they are going to leave NYC if taxes go up but, in reality, they don't. He should know. As far as we are concerned, that should be the final word.
Agreed. Billionaires love NY just like other New Yorkers . They love its energy, culture & presence of other billionaires. They can’t get the life they love in Palm Beach . They will threaten & then stay.
That's right. Billionaires can afford to live anywhere they like, and they usually choose expensive places to live. It's not like they choose to live in little one horse towns in the middle of nowhere unless they own the 10,000 acres around them, and then they buy the whole town.
On the Trump/Epstein thing. It's not surprising that the Wall Street Journal is the rag that pursued and published the article about the birthday card, etc. It's not because they've gone woke. They represent the interests of big business and finance in particular. The Big Bill that locked in tax cuts has passed and big business is more opposed to irrational tariffs and fucking with Jerome Powell and the Fed. Both of those things bring in uncertainty which is the worst thing for business AND are likely to bring financial catastrophe which can kill banks and the stock market. WSJ doesn't just have some enterprising investigative reporter, they had an editor sitting in on the meeting with Trump--it is an institutional commitment. So the specific releases aren't necessarily going to bring Trump down with his base, but the serious guys in finance have turned and they would be happy if Trump disappeared, perhaps 25th amendmented out or dead from a stroke or something. We'll see how this comes out.
Substack loves giving subscription money to Nazis, bigots, and quacks; a social media site that denies anything as expensive as moderation could be necessary, while continually tossing random idiots into one’s comment section. This has been the case since Jan 2024, when I cancelled all of my paying subs.
My substack numbers have been stuck in molasses for a few months now. Why? Because I suck or because Substackl sucks or because there has been a silent invasion of body-snatchers supplanting the kind of astute, subtle, educated, humor-enabled readers who are my bread and butter? So to speak?
Moving to ghost or beehive will be a giant pain in the ass, but I expect I'll have to do it soon. So, so, so frickin' frustrating. Where the heck will I find new readers without an ecosystem like Substack's? Not that Substack has brought me all that many subscribers, or, heaven knows, paying subscribers. I might have done better handing out flyers on a streetcorner.
BTW, Rusty Foster & others have been predicting exactly this direction for at least a year, maybe closer to two years.
I have a different feeling about Trump/Epstein than you do, but it's based on your underlying premise, with which I agree: MAGA values dominance. The problem for Trump is that through all this recent Epstein stuff Trump has not looked dominant; he has looked like a whiny-ass titty-baby. Not to mention that his irreversible dementia is increasingly apparent. I stand by my prediction from last October 9 that by January 1, 2026, Trump will no longer be President. If he doesn't resign for "medical reasons," the Theil/Vance/Johnson/Musk/Andreesen cabal will 25th-Amendment him.
How MAGA will respond to that is anybody's guess, but as ruthless as those Thiel/Johnson bros may be, none of them have any of the swagger & charisma of DJT. (I truly hate to use the word 'charismatic' to describe anybody as stupid & uneducated as Trump, but it's hard to argue with his success.) With no heir apparent, MAGA may very well eat its own. We can hope they do, but who the fuck knows.
About Mamdani, NYT/Stephens/, the obeisance to billionaires, etc: thank you for saying what we're all thinking but don't have your ability to express.
Eh, the Techbro Cabal have been fluffed for so many years in their bubble they are convinced they are philosopher kings, like unto gods, laying plans and gently pulling strings. To 25th Trump they need his cabinet, plus a sizable chunk of the Republican party. Unless they out-crazy Laura Loomer it ain't happening. Way more likely Trump strokes out. He's only leaving the White House on a stretcher. Post-Trump MAGA is a blank page. Is it The People's Temple or is it Scientology? I'd bet the seed corn Vance sees himself as David Miscavige, we'll see when he gets his shot.
Your guess is as good as mine. In the immortal words of Josephine 'Jo' McKenna (portrayed by Doris Day in Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much") the future's not ours to see, Que sera, sera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAzetzbI45M
Sorry, what would a celebration be without an exception.
Keep at it Dave. If Substack hadn’t stolen a few hundred bucks by screwing up my accounts and then asked me to provide all my credit card info so they could correct their error, I’d gladly pay for the privilege of reading your work
Funny, as a fellow free-rider, I have noticed the throttling and limiting of engagement of my content, as well as subscribers being culled without getting notifications of cancelations (all you can get as a free 'stack).
Now I know why. Advertising will be my red line. Not sure if I will just let it die, or if I will take my ball and go to Ghost (self hosted, but then I would have to pay for the Mailgun service for delivery), or just turn on paid subscriptions.
I always knew their model sucked, but this will be no bueno.
.
And, pardon the language, but Fuck both Ackman and Stephens sideways with chainsaws.
All that and this too; advertising kills the site. Oh, it makes money for the investors. But for me and others like me who want to consume something more than sound bites and nibbles to inform our worlds, it merely constitutes more of the visual clutter we navigate daily. Everything loads more slowly until it's no fun at all.
I used to love an online mag called The Root until they ruined it. Now it's just an ad platform for expensive, bespoke garbage that I'd never buy anyway.
There should be some kind of sponsored platforms for substack. Public funding like... never mind.
That’s why I might go the self funded route and eat the $500 a year.
The problem is that Notes is the killer app for people to find you. Ghost has something but it is really terrible. I do not want to do any lead farming to find people to subscribe
Exactly! You don't want to be distracted from writing by being obliged (by necessity of course) to fish for an audience and why TF should you hire a full-time person to do it for you, right?
This is some interesting data: https://research.contrary.com/company/substack
I knew Heather Cox Richardson's stack was the biggest, but I am surprised about how quickly the revenue drops off. The chart is from 2023, and I know the Bulwark has grown a lot, but so has HCR.
Wow! The revenue drop-off point is steep enough to induce headaches and nosebleed. This is the point that got me in the beginning of the article:
"Google and Meta potentially owe $12 billion to publishers and that small publishers that rely on traffic from Meta have lost between 20% - 30% of their audiences."
Absolutely mind boggling!
When Bill Ackman set up his hedge fund in 2004, he named it Pershing Square Capital Management. It was named after the restaurant where he and a few of his buddies would meet over breakfast or lunch to plot out there strategies. It's right across 42nd Street from Grand Central Station, so it's a very convenient place for Manhattanites, especially those living on Park Avenue, to meet with people commuting in from Connecticut or Westchester County. We occasionally take Metro North to Grand Central and meet friends there when they can only be with us a short time. Bill Ackman ain't leaving New York any time soon. 1) He'd never admit that HE couldn't afford to keep a place in Manhattan and 2) if Mamdani manages to crank up his taxes until he leaves, the city would be a better place.
"Sometimes the public is going to side with a mayoral candidate who doesn’t blow smoke up billionaires’ asses. That isn’t a crisis of Democracy. It’s kind of the point." Thank you for wording it as clearly and directly as it is when people try to muddy the water! It's outrageous journalists act at though it's a *bad* sign if someone doesn't kiss billionaires' asses
When Mayor Bloomberg raised taxes after 9/11, he stated flat out that billionaires always say they are going to leave NYC if taxes go up but, in reality, they don't. He should know. As far as we are concerned, that should be the final word.
Agreed. Billionaires love NY just like other New Yorkers . They love its energy, culture & presence of other billionaires. They can’t get the life they love in Palm Beach . They will threaten & then stay.
That's right. Billionaires can afford to live anywhere they like, and they usually choose expensive places to live. It's not like they choose to live in little one horse towns in the middle of nowhere unless they own the 10,000 acres around them, and then they buy the whole town.
I share your skepticism about the staying power and political impact of the Epstein stuff.
Josh Marshall is somewhat more optimistic that the Epstein thing is blowing up in Trump's face and likely to cause him some serious damage:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-failing-and-flailing-no-ones-ever-seen-anything-like-it/sharetoken/f93aab9f-0987-4318-b898-b32552d00a22
On the Trump/Epstein thing. It's not surprising that the Wall Street Journal is the rag that pursued and published the article about the birthday card, etc. It's not because they've gone woke. They represent the interests of big business and finance in particular. The Big Bill that locked in tax cuts has passed and big business is more opposed to irrational tariffs and fucking with Jerome Powell and the Fed. Both of those things bring in uncertainty which is the worst thing for business AND are likely to bring financial catastrophe which can kill banks and the stock market. WSJ doesn't just have some enterprising investigative reporter, they had an editor sitting in on the meeting with Trump--it is an institutional commitment. So the specific releases aren't necessarily going to bring Trump down with his base, but the serious guys in finance have turned and they would be happy if Trump disappeared, perhaps 25th amendmented out or dead from a stroke or something. We'll see how this comes out.
You are the first person I've read who agrees with me that this isn't a breaking point for his base.
Substack loves giving subscription money to Nazis, bigots, and quacks; a social media site that denies anything as expensive as moderation could be necessary, while continually tossing random idiots into one’s comment section. This has been the case since Jan 2024, when I cancelled all of my paying subs.
Oy.
My substack numbers have been stuck in molasses for a few months now. Why? Because I suck or because Substackl sucks or because there has been a silent invasion of body-snatchers supplanting the kind of astute, subtle, educated, humor-enabled readers who are my bread and butter? So to speak?
Moving to ghost or beehive will be a giant pain in the ass, but I expect I'll have to do it soon. So, so, so frickin' frustrating. Where the heck will I find new readers without an ecosystem like Substack's? Not that Substack has brought me all that many subscribers, or, heaven knows, paying subscribers. I might have done better handing out flyers on a streetcorner.
BTW, Rusty Foster & others have been predicting exactly this direction for at least a year, maybe closer to two years.
I have a different feeling about Trump/Epstein than you do, but it's based on your underlying premise, with which I agree: MAGA values dominance. The problem for Trump is that through all this recent Epstein stuff Trump has not looked dominant; he has looked like a whiny-ass titty-baby. Not to mention that his irreversible dementia is increasingly apparent. I stand by my prediction from last October 9 that by January 1, 2026, Trump will no longer be President. If he doesn't resign for "medical reasons," the Theil/Vance/Johnson/Musk/Andreesen cabal will 25th-Amendment him.
How MAGA will respond to that is anybody's guess, but as ruthless as those Thiel/Johnson bros may be, none of them have any of the swagger & charisma of DJT. (I truly hate to use the word 'charismatic' to describe anybody as stupid & uneducated as Trump, but it's hard to argue with his success.) With no heir apparent, MAGA may very well eat its own. We can hope they do, but who the fuck knows.
About Mamdani, NYT/Stephens/, the obeisance to billionaires, etc: thank you for saying what we're all thinking but don't have your ability to express.
Eh, the Techbro Cabal have been fluffed for so many years in their bubble they are convinced they are philosopher kings, like unto gods, laying plans and gently pulling strings. To 25th Trump they need his cabinet, plus a sizable chunk of the Republican party. Unless they out-crazy Laura Loomer it ain't happening. Way more likely Trump strokes out. He's only leaving the White House on a stretcher. Post-Trump MAGA is a blank page. Is it The People's Temple or is it Scientology? I'd bet the seed corn Vance sees himself as David Miscavige, we'll see when he gets his shot.
Your guess is as good as mine. In the immortal words of Josephine 'Jo' McKenna (portrayed by Doris Day in Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much") the future's not ours to see, Que sera, sera. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAzetzbI45M
My goodness, we finally agree on all points!
It is quiet, not quite.
Sorry, what would a celebration be without an exception.
Keep at it Dave. If Substack hadn’t stolen a few hundred bucks by screwing up my accounts and then asked me to provide all my credit card info so they could correct their error, I’d gladly pay for the privilege of reading your work