The Washington Post has held talks with Substack about hosting pieces by its writers, the site’s co-founder has said, as a host of legacy media brands embrace the newsletter platform in the battle for readers.
In an interview with the Guardian, Substack’s Hamish McKenzie said he had spoken to the Post about its plans to widen the types of opinion pieces on its website.
He said there had been a “change in mindset” from traditional media, which once viewed Substack with suspicion. He said many now saw the platform as an opportunity to adapt to what he described as “the most significant media disruption since the printing press”.
The potential tie-up comes after Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Post, provoked its comment editor to walk out after he announced its comment pages would be more narrowly focused on pieces that supported and defended “personal liberties” and “free markets”. The move was seen as an attempt by Bezos to safeguard his relationship with President Trump.
But if the Washington Post owners still limit the topics, what good will having more authors do?
Readers who like these Substack authors would go directly to the authors’ unfiltered Substack.
This is the Way.
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Be journalist at WSP
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Leave after Bezos totally fucked up the journalistic integrity of the newspaper
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Start your own newsletter
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???
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Be journalist at WSP
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If you’re so desperate for writers that you have to recruit bloggers, it might be time to reevaluate your relevance. Forbes tried it a few years ago, and when was the last time anyone cared about Forbes?
I write on Substack about Videogames and I would fucking hate to have my articles, that I spend a lot of time on, be in the Washington Post. I hate that place. Even the article series I wrote that is significantly research based and took me a couple months to put together and release and that has led to me writing a book to go into more detail I wouldn’t want to have in that trash piece.
Substack is activity platforming and enabling Nazis to monetize themselves. I’m not surprised that’s where mainstream media wants to look for more writers.
Tell creators to leave whenever you can.
Wait until you hear of the MAGAverse on YouTube.
Wow. That’s pathetic.
And my Dad will continue to read it religiously every day
