Substack wants to simplify the search for sponsorship income for thousands of newsletter authors.
The platform announced Monday that it is debuting a new phase of its native sponsorship program that will allow individual creators to forge partnerships with advertisers such as Yahoo Scout, Whatnot, Granola, Balenciaga, T-Mobile, Polymarket and Uber. Specific terms of these agreements were not disclosed.
“These forward-thinking brands recognize that some of the most interesting conversations happening on the internet are driven by the writers and creators on Substack. They will be building and investing millions of dollars in collaboration with the creators who choose to participate,” Substack CEO and founder Chris Best said in an essay published Monday. “These are not arbitrarily inserted ads; they are direct partnerships between brands and publishers who have already built robust audience-first businesses. Creators choose who they work with, set the creative direction, and have complete editorial independence. Our job is to take care of the things they shouldn’t be doing: the matchmaking, infrastructure, and logistics so they can focus on their work.”
Substack’s program is the creator publishing platform’s latest effort to help monetize content in a more meaningful way. For example, Beehiiv recently announced a new suite of tools to help creators build websites. It sells products and services ranging from e-books to coaching. Among other activities, host a podcast.
As media gains new scale, advertisers may be considering partnering with newsletter publishers more frequently. According to Bes, more than 100,000 publishers make money through subscriptions on Substack, and the top 10 creators earn more than $100 million annually. The platform reportedly has “tens of millions” of subscribers.
Substack may want a share of the revenue that individual authors are already generating on their own. Best pointed to the fact that “some of the most successful creators find ways to grow their businesses and better serve their communities by partnering with organizations that provide their services.”
We’re offering more benefits, investing deeper in our editorial, and introducing new features for our subscribers. ” For example, Emily Sandberg, creator of the Feed Me newsletter, published a sponsored letter on the dating app Hinge, and Lenny Rachitzky, author of the career-focused Lenny’s Newsletter, bundled access and trials to complementary products and offered them as a benefit to specific demographics of subscribers.
“These creators worked with independent agents and managers on this work.
“They had to figure out outreach, negotiate terms, manage relationships and handle logistics in addition to the job of showing up for subscribers,” Best said.
Substack has also launched something called “Creator Kits,” a new tool for publishers to create media kits based on the details they want to share about their Substack publications.
