Substack is positioning itself as Ellis Island for TikTokers.

Substack hasn’t just made me a subscriber; it’s turned me into a willing participant in the marketplace of internet intellectualism.

That’s the platform’s real magic trick—turning ideas into products, writers into entrepreneurs, and newsletters into status symbols.

In its variety, the Substack corpus resembles the blogosphere. It is produced by a mix of career journalists, bloggers, specialists, novelists, hobbyists, dabblers, and white-collar professionals looking to plump up their personal brands. The company has tried to recruit high-profile writers, offering (to a select few) health-care stipends, design ... See more

A Substack newsletter is both a product and a portfolio: a way to make money, but also a venue for displaying personality, intelligence, and taste.