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> Here's how this plays out. The successful writers on Substack will eventually leave the platform for more control over their audience and lower fees (there's

> Here's how this plays out. The successful writers on Substack will eventually leave the platform for more control over their audience and lower fees (there's a reason Ben Thompson isn't on Substack). Except the entire model of substack is based on writers not having access even to their audience's mail addresses.

ves 6y ago
well, you may not have their address, but you have their inbox. “References and supplemental video content available on my website at ...”
- seemslegit 6y ago
  Great, so now you have a website to maintain and pay for and your customers with their associated revenue are still owned by substack. Getting paying subscribers to change their subscription method is huge friction and risk of churn, the more revenue you already have established on substack the bigger the risk cost of trying to move away, aka the boiled frog business model.
sails 6y ago
Substack writers do have access to their signups and can easily export them. https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465992-How-do-I-export-my-email-or-subscriber-list- https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465992-...
- edouard-harris 6y ago
  Yes. This has been the case from the very beginning of their platform, as far as I'm aware.
chinathrow 6y ago
> Except the entire model of substack is based on the writers not having access even to their audience's mail addresses. Is that correct as of today? https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465992-How-do-I-export-my-email-or-subscriber-list- https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465992-...
- seemslegit 6y ago
  I'm not sure, their Publisher Agreement seems to also have been very recently revised to remove some very strong prohibitions against trying to gather your subscribers data on your own so maybe they realized it's a bad idea - do you know what information is included in the csv ?

ves 6y ago

well, you may not have their address, but you have their inbox. “References and supplemental video content available on my website at ...”

seemslegit 6y ago
Great, so now you have a website to maintain and pay for and your customers with their associated revenue are still owned by substack. Getting paying subscribers to change their subscription method is huge friction and risk of churn, the more revenue you already have established on substack the bigger the risk cost of trying to move away, aka the boiled frog business model.

sails 6y ago

Substack writers do have access to their signups and can easily export them. https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465992-How-do-I-export-my-email-or-subscriber-list- https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465992-...

edouard-harris 6y ago
Yes. This has been the case from the very beginning of their platform, as far as I'm aware.

chinathrow 6y ago

> Except the entire model of substack is based on the writers not having access even to their audience's mail addresses. Is that correct as of today? https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465992-How-do-I-export-my-email-or-subscriber-list- https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037465992-...

seemslegit 6y ago
I'm not sure, their Publisher Agreement seems to also have been very recently revised to remove some very strong prohibitions against trying to gather your subscribers data on your own so maybe they realized it's a bad idea - do you know what information is included in the csv ?