So… You’re A Journalist Who Wants To Start A Paid Newsletter?

Perhaps you have a niche topic you want to explore, or you’re trying to find a way to write more about your passions. Maybe you have an idea for a great piece, but you’re struggling to find a home for it? Even if none of the above apply, the foundations of journalism seem to be getting more shaky, with job cuts, redundancies, and increasingly low pay.  So, it’s no surprise you may be considering joining the 17,000 writers who’ve set up a paid Substack.

While the platform is by no means the only newsletter platform in town, with tools like Ghost and Beehiv also picking up traction, it’s certainly become emblematic of a shift in how journalists are thinking about their financial futures. Indeed, the company claims “dozens” of UK writers are now making six figures. So, is it worth starting your own newsletter as a journalist?

Why Should Journalists Start A Newsletter?

Isabella Silvers, journalist and writer of Mixed Messages, started her newsletter for many of the reasons above. Speaking to Journo Resources, she says: “It’s a really difficult time in media at the moment; I’m pitching all of these ideas and nobody’s picking them up because they don’t have the budget to commission.”

Her experiences as a person of mixed heritage also encouraged Isabella to share her story. “I wanted a space where we could discuss the topic of mixedness, because it’s difficult to discuss. The whole point of Mixed Messages is to show that there’s not one way to be mixed. There’s so much more to it,” she says.

Isabella Silvers, founder of Mixed Messages (L) and Jamie Wareham, founder of Queer AF (R).

For Jamie Wareham, founder of LGBTQIA+ publication QueerAF, his newsletter was born out of the Covid-19 lockdown. “Because of the pandemic and my disability, I couldn’t go out and freelance like I would usually do. I had the QueerAF podcast, a project I’d done for many years, and thought about what I could do with it. It would be difficult to do the podcast and I knew newsletters were a big deal, so I wanted to explore the idea.”

Talking Travel Writing, run by Lottie Gross and Steph Dyson, also blossomed out of the 2020 lockdown. Lottie explains: “During the pandemic, lots of travel writers lost their work. Some of us were discussing it on Twitter and Facebook — it was a very lonely and scary time for travel writers so it prompted me to think we need some kind of community to help everyone feel a bit less lost.”

As travel began to open up again, she realised that travel writers had a really influential position in the media and played an important part in people’s lives. “We were disseminating rules from the government and were suddenly almost responsible for public health. I started the newsletter so we could have these conversations and have somewhere to go to discuss how to get through being travel writers in the pandemic,” she adds.

Naturally, the subscription model is also a big draw for writers wishing to monetise their work and own their revenue streams. Lottie points to the success of The Manchester Mill, originally founded by Joshi Hermann on Substack, going on to raise £350,000 from investors, launch multiple outlets, and hire 22 staff members across the country.

While this certainly isn’t the case for every writer — analysis by Anna Codrea Rado found that 40 per cent of writers made less than US$1,000 a year — there have been other notable success stories. The Edinburgh Minute has allowed its founder to leave his job at Meta, while Emma Gannon told Press Gazette she has a six-figure income, telling the paper: “I just feel really, really strongly that writers’ words are worth something […] so I’m really passionate about the value being understood”.

While it’s impossible to say for certain what makes one newsletter succeed while another struggles to break even, there are some common threads. “Consistency is key,” says Isabella, who also runs both Instagram and Twitter accounts alongside the newsletter to engage with her supporters and connect with new ones. “You have to keep promoting yourself. If you don’t tell anyone about your newsletter, how will they know about it?”

It’s also important to remember being paid can mean many different things — while Lottie and Steph put roughly 75 per cent of their content behind a paywall, Isabella has kept all content free with membership as an option to give back and access giveaways. Jamie, on the other hand, uses membership to allow early access to content. Which model you choose depends on your strategy and ethos. It’s also worth considering that you might not want to turn on paid memberships straight away, but let an audience build first. “It takes time to build a loyal audience,” says Isabella. “Just be aware that people who are earning a lot of money from their newsletters probably had a platform and audience before,” she says.

For Jamie, QueerAF is not only a newsletter, it is a platform to support marginalised queer creatives: “One of our biggest strengths is that people support us not just because of our content, but because our work is really valuable. They do it because their money isn’t going towards a media mogul’s salary, they know it’s being reinvested into creative talent which will hopefully start changing the narrative in the UK about queer rights.” So, if your work is about making an impact, tell people how their money will make a difference.

For practical newsletters, Lottie advises thinking hard about how your newsletter will tangibly help people, especially in an increasingly crowded space.”Your newsletter having value is really key because otherwise, people might not want to subscribe and pay unless you can offer them something in return. It’s harder to get people to pay for entertainment, especially through writing, so you need to think about how it can be of use for them.”

Can Newsletters Bring Benefits Beyond Money?

But, even putting subscriptions aside, there can be other benefits to setting up a newsletter. For Isabella, one of the motivations for starting her newsletter was her hope to get a book deal. “My mentor told me a newsletter is a great way to build up a written body of work to show publishers that people are interested in buying your work,” she explains.

It’s also something she feels has helped her to stay motivated. “I think the industry can grind you down, so being able to have something I’m proud of has definitely kept me going. It’s opened my mind, which I think is really important as a journalist.”

Similarly, Lottie feels that her profile as a travel writer has risen because of it, which has also created other paid work: “Editors know me, PRs know me, and other journalists know me. I’ve had work opportunities as a direct result of writing this newsletter.”

Before you set out, it’s worth thinking about what exactly you’re hoping to get out of your newsletter.

What Are The Downsides To Starting A Newsletter?

Though there are many positives to starting a newsletter, it’s far from an easy ride. “It’s a full-time job,” cautions Jamie, when asked about the pressures of juggling a growing newsletter with other work that pays the bills. “The autonomy is really powerful but it counterbalances the fact that it’s taken me two years to get to the point where I am full-time and paid.” Despite this, he says the flexibility he now has been invaluable for his disability: “The beauty of the newsletter is that I run it, I can take a nap if I’m not feeling well enough to work and just catch up in the evening when I’m able to.”

For this reason, Lottie recommends starting small, so you know you can deliver consistently. “Going straight in for a weekly newsletter will be exhausting, so I would suggest starting small and developing gradually. [Talking Travel Writing] started with a fortnightly newsletter to grow our readership, and once we realised there was a demand, we catered to it,” she explains. The team also now plan out their content in advance, with monthly themes to help give it more structure.

When starting your newsletter, it’s also worth remembering that you typically won’t have an editor, especially if it’s a personal project. “Make sure you always spell-check your work,” stresses Isabella. You can also gen up on how to self-edit your own work with a Journo Resources membership, which offers several sessions full of tips. In general though, make sure you’re leaving plenty of time to check your work, take a breather between writing and editing, and make sure to read it fully out loud.

Alternatively, you could team up with another writer or editor you respect, which is something that has worked for Lottie. She says: “I approached a friend of mine, Steph Dyson, who I’d worked with in the past. I didn’t want to do a newsletter on my own, because I think that everybody needs an editor.”

Most of all though, if you’re putting in the time to work on a newsletter, it’s really important to make sure it is a subject you are genuinely interested in researching and writing about. “Pick something you want to write about every week. I picked QueerAF because it’s work I’ve been doing for five years in the newsroom and beyond that — I live and breathe it. You can’t be bored of [the topic] because that is what your newsletter is about. You need to enjoy it,” Jamie advises.

Farrar Storr, who heads up UK writer partnerships at Substack, agrees. Speaking to Press Gazette, she says the magic comes from the “intimacy” of the platform. “It’s not actually about what you’re writing about. It’s those who are passionate about what they write about and therefore they probably write more frequently. Whether that’s about leaf blowing, or whether that’s about the news doesn’t really matter.”

For Isabella, that’s the most important thing: “Overall, the passion you have for writing about your chosen topic should be number one. The money is a bonus.”

Header image courtesy of Austin Distel via Unsplash