Keep pulling the thread on Chris Best.
During the 2020-2021 period, both Twitter and Facebook deplatformed a sitting U.S. president.
Substack's long-term strategy is to build its own social network to reduce creator dependency on external platforms and operate with a business model fundamentally different from ad-based networks.
Eric suggests that Substack has enabled price discovery for writers, citing Noah Smith as an example whose earnings potential increased from an estimated $80,000 salary at Bloomberg to over $1 million annually as an independent creator.
Substack has recently raised a $100 million funding round.
The core, long-term vision for Substack is the combination of a business model supporting independent creators with an internet-scale social network.
In the summer of 2020, James Bennett was forced to resign as the op-ed editor of The New York Times for publishing an op-ed by a sitting U.S. senator.
Katherine believes that around 2020, Substack was the only platform that stood up to protect free speech amidst widespread deplatforming by other tech companies.
Substack's core mission is to create a new economic engine for culture, with free speech being an important but secondary pillar.
Eric asserts that prior to Substack, the blogging ecosystem was in decline due to a lack of viable economic models beyond affiliate fees and Google AdSense.
Ben Thompson's publication, Stratechery, was an early and influential example demonstrating the viability of a paid subscription model for independent online writing.
Substack has observed a pattern of creators leaving the platform using its export features, only to return later, a phenomenon the company refers to as "boomerangs."
A core part of Substack's strategy is providing creators with the "right to exit" by allowing them to easily export their email lists and content, which forces the company to continuously add value to retain them.