👋 Hi Reader,

The irony is not lost on me.

I am covering a newsletter platform exodus today, as I am deliberating switching to a different newsletter platform.

But more on that in next week’s issue.

I spent time this week going into all the angles on the Emma Roth Substack story from The Verge. In her words, writers are fleeing Substack, because of a pricing model that puts a choke hold on their subscriber business. I think she's right on the money.

We have covered this before at LetterStack: Substack takes nearly 13% out of every dollar that you earn from paid subscriptions. If you are earning anywhere between $4-5k a month in subscription revenue, you are giving away almost $500-600 to Substack.

A growing number of Substack newsletter creators decided they are going to keep more money to themselves, rather than give it out to the infrastructure. Emma covered Matt Brown from Extra Points, and Sean Highkin from The Rose Garden Report, but I am pretty positive that they are not the only prolific writers leaving Substack.

Does this mean Substack is dying? Hardly. On the contrary, Substack is thriving and because their discovery is working so well in acquiring and converting to paid subscribers, these creators are earning more money. They just decided to take home more money to themselves, instead of the platform.

How does this relate to my situation?

Which brings me to the question that I keep getting from my weekly calls with B2B founders and media operators every week.

As I have said before, I think platform selection is probably a symptom of the wrong question at the wrong time. Most people try to choose a platform, before they know what job they are asking the newsletter to do. I think bigger newsletter creators like Matt McGarry and Chenell Basilio have tried hitting this point home, but let me try once more from my vantage point.

So here’s the framework I feel will help you decide:

1. Would your newsletter be a discovery engine or a pipeline for your business? Substack is better at discovery, compared to the other platforms.
2. Are you aiming for subscription revenue or services revenue? You might be better off on beehiiv, if you would like to keep most of your sub revenue, and build a services business on top of that model.
3. Does the platform make money when you do, or when you stay? Kit and beehiiv make money when you stay with them, Substack makes money when you make money with your paid subs.

Chances are you might not have a binary answer to each of these questions.

That’s ok - to be honest, I do not have a straightforward yes/no for LetterStack on these questions.

I am also aware, that my choices on these questions are not set in stone. As I see the answer evolve from my earlier responses, I am free to move to a different platform and take my audience with it.

For me at this point in time, the answers are as below:

1. I want the LetterStack newsletter to be a discovery engine and introduce a better way of running a newsletter business to all the creators and B2B brands who are looking to own their audience.
2. I intend to make no subscription revenue and keep the content free to the extent I can.
3. I don’t intend to make money off the newsletter to the extent I can.

So a Kit or beehiiv choice makes itself apparent when I answer the 3 questions. When you start building your services business or media brand, the last question should make it apparent:

4. Do you want to go multi-format, or keep writing the focus of your business?

Pair these 4 questions together at your newsletter stage, and make peace with the answer, as it applies to your current situation.

Do not fixate on what it would look like 3 years into the future, as your answers at that point will change, and you can easily navigate the migration if it comes to that.

Does that clarify your decision-making? If you are still on the fence, I would love to be a sounding board.

Let me know by hitting ‘Reply’ on this email, or send a note to marketing@letterstack.co.

This newsletter is sponsored by The Alien Design

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Cheers,

Renga from LetterStack

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