Writers are fleeing the Substack Tax
Writers are fleeing the Substack Tax
作者们正在逃离“Substack税”
A new wave of writers is porting their publications to rivals like Ghost and Beehiiv. 新一波作者正将他们的出版物迁移到 Ghost 和 Beehiiv 等竞争对手平台。
Substack, the once buzzy newsletter platform, is losing a new swath of writers to rival platforms most people haven’t heard of. Just last month, The Ankler, one of Substack’s most popular publications, left for a platform that gives it more control over its site. Others who have departed Substack within the past year voiced similar complaints and cite the platform’s increased focus on social features as well as a pricing model that puts a chokehold on their business. 曾经风光无限的通讯平台 Substack 正在流失大量作者，他们转向了大多数人闻所未闻的竞争平台。就在上个月，Substack 最受欢迎的出版物之一《The Ankler》转投了一个能提供更多网站控制权的平台。过去一年中离开 Substack 的其他作者也表达了类似的抱怨，他们指出该平台日益关注社交功能，且其定价模式扼杀了他们的业务发展。
Substack faced talent drain in 2024 linked to its platforming of Nazi newsletters, but now it’s not just the platform’s stance on hate speech that’s driving away creators. 2024 年，Substack 因允许纳粹相关通讯内容存在而面临人才流失，但现在，驱使创作者离开的原因已不仅仅是该平台对仇恨言论的态度。
Sean Highkin, the creator of the NBA-focused publication The Rose Garden Report, tells The Verge that he makes “significantly more money” after switching from Substack to Ghost last April. “When I first joined up, [Substack] gave me a big push and featured me and funneled a lot of traffic to me, which led to a good amount of growth,” Highkin says. “But once I wasn’t one of the ‘new recruited talent’ they could tout, they stopped featuring me and I saw my growth stagnate.” Highkin now pays $2,052 per year using Ghost and an add-on called Outpost, compared to $4,968 per year on Substack. The Rose Garden Report’s subscriber base has grown 22 percent since the end of 2024, Highkin says. 专注于 NBA 的出版物《The Rose Garden Report》的创作者 Sean Highkin 告诉 The Verge，他在去年 4 月从 Substack 转向 Ghost 后，“赚的钱明显更多了”。Highkin 说：“当我刚加入时，[Substack] 给了我很大的支持，推荐了我并为我带来了大量流量，这带来了相当可观的增长。但一旦我不再是他们可以吹捧的‘新招募人才’，他们就停止了推荐，我的增长也随之停滞。”Highkin 现在使用 Ghost 和名为 Outpost 的插件，每年费用为 2,052 美元，而此前在 Substack 上每年需支付 4,968 美元。Highkin 表示，自 2024 年底以来，《The Rose Garden Report》的订阅用户群增长了 22%。
It’s a similar story for creators switching to other platforms like Beehiiv. Matt Brown, the creator of Extra Points, which currently has 71,000 subscribers, moved away from Substack in 2021 and eventually landed on Beehiiv, where he saves thousands of dollars per year. “Given the size of my publication right now, I would need to pay Substack over $25,000 a year in fees,” Brown says. “I pay Beehiiv around $3,000-ish in fees.” 对于转向 Beehiiv 等其他平台的创作者来说，情况也类似。目前拥有 71,000 名订阅者的《Extra Points》创作者 Matt Brown 在 2021 年离开了 Substack，最终选择了 Beehiiv，这让他每年节省了数千美元。“以我目前出版物的规模，我每年需要向 Substack 支付超过 25,000 美元的费用，”Brown 说，“而在 Beehiiv，我只需支付大约 3,000 美元左右。”
The Ankler — a popular publication about the entertainment industry — announced plans to leave Substack for Passport, a platform created through a partnership with WordPress.com owner Automattic and Stratechery founder Ben Thompson. “This transition marks a defining moment in what has been underway: a move beyond newsletters into a fully integrated media company, now all brought together in a single, easy-to-navigate home,” The Ankler’s Janice Min and Richard Rushfield write in a blog post explaining the change. 关于娱乐行业的知名出版物《The Ankler》宣布计划离开 Substack，转投 Passport。该平台是由 WordPress.com 母公司 Automattic 与 Stratechery 创始人 Ben Thompson 合作创建的。“这次转型标志着我们一直在进行的工作迎来了一个决定性时刻：从通讯转向一家完全整合的媒体公司，现在所有内容都汇集在一个易于导航的单一主页中，”《The Ankler》的 Janice Min 和 Richard Rushfield 在解释这一变动的博客文章中写道。
Min echoes this in a statement to Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter, saying The Ankler “needed more flexibility and control across products, revenue, and audience relationships than the platform [Substack] allows.” But The Ankler is far from the only prominent publication or newsletter that has switched to a Substack alternative in recent months. Last October, Culture Study creator Anne Helen Petersen moved from Substack to Patreon, saying: “I didn’t want to be on a platform that had been steadily — and not so stealthily — enshittified.” Status also reports that The Bulwark, Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo, and Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me have “quietly explored” moving to another platform. Min 在给 Oliver Darcy 的《Status》通讯的一份声明中重申了这一点，称《The Ankler》“在产品、收入和受众关系方面需要比该平台 [Substack] 所允许的更多的灵活性和控制权。”但《The Ankler》绝不是近几个月来转向 Substack 替代平台的唯一知名出版物或通讯。去年 10 月，《Culture Study》的创作者 Anne Helen Petersen 从 Substack 搬到了 Patreon，她说：“我不想待在一个一直在——而且并不隐蔽地——走向平庸化（enshittified）的平台上。”《Status》还报道称，《The Bulwark》、Mehdi Hasan 的《Zeteo》以及 Emily Sundberg 的《Feed Me》也已“悄悄探索”迁移到其他平台的可能性。
Substack launched in 2017 as a platform that allows writers to create their own newsletters and manage paying subscribers. Unlike some of its biggest rivals, Substack takes a 10 percent cut of total subscription revenue. That tax may not seem substantial at first, but it quickly adds up as creators gain subscribers and begin charging more for their subscriptions. A calculator on Substack’s own website estimates that for a newsletter charging $10 per month with 400 subscribers, the total monthly cost — including the platform’s 10 percent cut and credit card processing fees — would add up to $636. That cost jumps to $15,900 per month with 10,000 subscribers and skyrockets to $79,500 per month for 50,000 members — nearly $1 million per year. Substack 于 2017 年推出，旨在让作者能够创建自己的通讯并管理付费订阅者。与一些最大的竞争对手不同，Substack 会从总订阅收入中抽取 10% 的分成。这笔“税”起初看起来并不多，但随着创作者获得更多订阅者并提高订阅价格，费用会迅速增加。Substack 官网上的计算器显示，对于一份每月收费 10 美元、拥有 400 名订阅者的通讯，每月总成本（包括平台 10% 的分成和信用卡处理费）将达到 636 美元。当订阅者达到 10,000 人时，该成本跃升至每月 15,900 美元；而当拥有 50,000 名成员时，成本则飙升至每月 79,500 美元——每年近 100 万美元。
Many Substack rivals charge a flat monthly fee, rather than a commission. Ghost, an open-source platform for blogs and newsletters, starts at $15 per month with 1,000 members for website creation, email newsletter capabilities, and a custom domain. Beehiiv, a creator platform with tools for launching a newsletter, website, and podcast, is free for up to 2,500 subscribers with limited access to certain features, like a built-in ad network, while its other plans vary in price based on subscriber count. A person with 10,000 subscribers, for example, will pay $96 per month for Beehiiv’s “Scale” plan. There’s also Kit, a newsletter platform that offers a tiered pricing model similar to Beehiiv, costing $116 per month with 10,000 subscribers on its “Creator” plan. 许多 Substack 的竞争对手收取固定的月费，而不是佣金。Ghost 是一个用于博客和通讯的开源平台，起价为每月 15 美元（包含 1,000 名成员），提供网站创建、电子邮件通讯功能和自定义域名。Beehiiv 是一个为发布通讯、网站和播客提供工具的创作者平台，在 2,500 名订阅者以内免费，但对内置广告网络等特定功能的访问权限有限，其其他计划的价格则根据订阅者数量而定。例如，拥有 10,000 名订阅者的用户每月需为 Beehiiv 的“Scale”计划支付 96 美元。此外还有 Kit，这是一个提供类似于 Beehiiv 分级定价模式的通讯平台，其“Creator”计划在拥有 10,000 名订阅者时每月收费 116 美元。
The pricing on Substack isn’t the only pain point for creators, as critics argue that it also locks writers and their subscribers into a closed ecosystem. For one, Substack has limited integrations with third-party apps, leaving writers with the platform’s set of built-in tools that might not have everything they need. It has added several new features over the years, including tools for podcasts, videos, and social networking-style features like DMs. But it generated controversy earlier this year with its new TV app and an integration with the prediction market Polymarket. Substack 的定价并不是创作者唯一的痛点，批评者认为它还将作者及其订阅者锁定在一个封闭的生态系统中。首先，Substack 与第三方应用程序的集成有限，作者只能使用平台内置的工具集，而这些工具可能无法满足他们的所有需求。多年来，它增加了一些新功能，包括播客、视频工具以及类似社交网络的私信（DM）功能。但它今年早些时候推出的电视应用程序以及与预测市场 Polymarket 的集成引发了争议。
Creators must also contend with the platform’s limited customization options that can make it difficult to stand out in a sea of other newsletters. Substack sticks its branding at the bottom of newsletters, too, while “.substack.com” even appears in a creator’s website address if they don’t purchase a custom domain. 创作者还必须应对该平台有限的自定义选项，这使得他们在众多的通讯中很难脱颖而出。Substack 还会将自己的品牌标识贴在通讯底部，如果创作者不购买自定义域名，他们的网站地址中甚至会出现“.substack.com”的后缀。