The significance of traditional media platforms – television, print, news sites – has been declining for years: in some markets, traffic to major news sites is experiencing double-digit drops. Meanwhile, social media, various video-sharing platforms, online aggregators, and creator platforms (such as Substack) are becoming increasingly important. Among other things, this is highlighted by Reuters’ Digital News Report. The process is excellently illustrated by data showing that in the American sample of the survey, more than one-fifth (22%) of respondents learned about important news primarily from popular podcaster Joe Rogan’s content in the week following Donald Trump’s inauguration. The situation is similar in France, where Hugo Travers (HugoDécrypte) reaches 22% of people under 35 with content distributed mainly on YouTube and TikTok.
What Does the Substack World Look Like?
Why is this process interesting to us as PR professionals? It’s completely clear that the decline of traditional media platforms, the fragmentation of content production, the emergence of new gatekeepers alongside editors and journalists, the strengthening of direct audience relationships, and the opening of new layers of credibility are thoroughly shaking up the previously established system. It may not be an exaggeration to say that media relations work is fundamentally changing because instead of a world dominated by a few large media companies, we suddenly find ourselves in a multidimensional universe of numerous smaller content producers with strong audience relationships on platforms like Substack.
What Caused the Change?
The process didn’t start now, but it has become truly spectacular recently. At least three parallel changes are happening in the background.
First, traditional media has entered a crisis. Print media is clearly among the losers of the news race that has accelerated to the speed of light. Television content production is an overly expensive, labor and technology-intensive genre (for comparison: Joe Rogan brings higher viewership day after day with a staff of just a few people and minimal technical background than CNN’s news programs produced with huge staff, technology, and costs). All this is compounded by declining advertising revenue, which doesn’t bode well…
Meanwhile, the advancement of social media has been an ongoing process for many years. The phenomenon once somewhat dismissively referred to by media industry professionals as user-generated content (UGC) has become practically dominant. Today, among traditional media companies, only those that drive traffic to their own platforms from social platforms can stay in the game. These platforms have both democratized content production (since anyone can post anything) and offer direct connection between creators and their audiences, creating an entirely new intellectual (and in many cases financial) ecosystem.
And into this gently simmering soup came artificial intelligence, like Mentos into Coca-Cola…and with roughly the same effect: the process literally exploded. Fragmentation accelerated (as content generation became faster than ever before – let’s not consider quality now), and the power of creators’ personal brands continued to grow.
What Is PR Like in the Substack Era?
Okay, but what does all this mean in practice for us PR professionals? First and foremost, that alongside traditional media companies and newsrooms, we must also pay attention to (seemingly) independent content producers. I inserted the word “seemingly” because there are also setups where an editor signs a content platform (e.g., newsletter) under their own name, yet this platform is strongly connected to a traditional medium.
Professional attention doesn’t differ much from how we previously tried to personalize messages for individual journalists, but the significant increase in the number of creators to reach requires new working methods.
When compiling a good media list, besides editors and journalists, you can’t skip industry specialists on Substack nowadays (e.g., The Pragmatic Engineer with over one million subscribers in IT), creators active on Patreon, or producers of popular LinkedIn newsletters.
Substack in Numbers
The scale is well illustrated by data showing that Substack currently manages over 50 million subscribers, 10% of whom actually pay for content (the platform also allows creators to offer free subscriptions). Currently, more than 50,000 publications actually generate revenue on the platform, and the total number of publications is much higher. The most popular Substack publications can have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and there are several newsletters that exceed one or even two million. Regarding Substack’s financial ecosystem, available data shows there are dozens of publications on the platform with revenues exceeding $1 million per year. The main lesson from the above data is that the platform launched a few years ago, which was initially a niche tool for independent writers, has now become one of the powerhouses of digital publishing. And it’s no different with Patreon and other similar tools.
10 Tips for PR Professionals
And now here are 10 useful tips on how to navigate this multidimensional new Substack media world.
Mindset-shift:
- Map your industry’s independent voices – You need to pay attention not just to Forbes or Portfolio, but to that expert with 3,000 subscribers whom everyone in the sector reads.
- Build long-term relationships, don’t just pitch – For independent creators, regular, quality relationships are more valuable than one-time press releases.
Thought leadership:
- Think in micro-influencer partnerships – A well-placed Substack appearance can be worth more than a brief in a national daily newspaper.
- Create your own thought leadership platform – Consider whether to launch a Substack newsletter or LinkedIn series for your client.
- Be a source, notjust a newssource – Offer exclusive data, research, background information to these independent creators.
Content Strategy:
- Scale with AI, but win them with personalization – Use AI for research and drafting, but keep relationship-building human.
- Think in communities, not just readers – These platforms are interactive be prepared for commenting, debates, AMAs.
Measurement and Adaptation:
- Modify success metrics – Calculate the value of a Substack appearance not just from reach, but from engagement and audience quality.
- Diversify the media mix – Don’t abandon traditional channels, but incorporate new platforms into the portfolio.
- Be flexible and experimental – This terrain is constantly changing. What works today may not work tomorrow. Test, measure, change, learn.
Who Will Be Successful?
In summary, we can definitely state that this new Substack world doesn’t yet mean the complete collapse of traditional media, but rather the infinite diversification of the media ecosystem. The successful PR professional will be the one who can navigate this more complex world than ever before. If you need help developing a media strategy, planning and operating media relations, contact us at rnagy@probako.hu.
