Ever consider ditching your job to start a newsletter or podcast? Was your next thought, Wait… will anyone actually care about what I make?
A new product called Presubscribe aims to alleviate the self-doubt.
It’s a free way to test the waters for demand
Through the platform, fans can “presubscribe” to your hypothetical publication by dropping in their email and the amount they’d be willing to pay to support you, were you to start something.
The company keeps your subscriber list locked away until you ask for it. The total cost to you: $0.
Among the creators with the most pre-subscriptions:
- Matt Levine (Bloomberg)
- Taylor Lorenz (The New York Times)
- Mike Issac (The New York Times)
The media biz can’t get enough of newsletters
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a trend of creators leaving cushy staff jobs to start their own newsletters:
- Former Buzzfeed writer Alex Kantrowitz launched Big Technology.
- Ex-Fortune writer Polina Marinova founded The Profile.
- One-time engineer Ben Thompson now runs Stratechery, which brings in millions of dollars a year.
As media jobs dry up, an increasing number of journalists and creators are building out their own newsletters using platforms like Substack — a company that claims 100k+ of its users pay for newsletters.
