How many do people pay for newsletters such as Substack? It can be surprising.

Despite the surprise, Mrs. Hermann-Johnson is not considering clearing her list. While she reads her paid newsletters – among them from Nora Mcinerya sadness writer; Laura Mckowenan austerity writer; And Catherine NewmanA memoir and novelist – there were no surprises. All were writers she read, loved and felt good to give money.

“I just want to support them and their work, and that’s how I feel I can do it,” she said.

A relatively new expenditure category

Hamish McKenzie, one of the founders of Substack, wrote in a substit after Last year that Ben Thompson, a Tech analyst who writes the blog StratecherieHad inspired an early version of his company. Mr Thompson added a paid membership option to his blog in 2014 six months1,000 subscribers paid him at least $ 100 per year for premium content. (Mr Thompson refers to his own publication as a “Subscription based blog, newsletter and podcast.”

When Mr. McKenzie Substack founded with his colleagues Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi in 2017, their first recruit was to the Platform Bill Bishop, whose free newsletter, SinocismHad 30,000 subscribers. On his first day it published on Substack, he brought in $ 100,000 of subscriptions. Substack, like now, lasted 10 percent.

Nowadays, many platforms and products, including Beehiiv, Kit, Member, Ghost, Lede and Patreon, help to create writers paid publications. But Substack is generally considered the largest, with more than 50,000 publications in turnover. The company reports that it has tens of millions of active subscribers and five million paid subscriptions. It refused to share concrete subscribers, including the number of paid subscribers.

Because the category is relatively new, there are not yet enough public information about who pays for newsletters, or how much they pay.