What's next for journalists?

And for the first time in your career, you feel anti-fragile. You’re no longer vulnerable to a publisher’s budget cuts, pivot to video, staff redundancy after a merger, or ‘new editorial direction’. No one can say that what you believe isn’t fit to print. You can experiment with new formats or revenue streams like exclusive chat rooms, paid podcast... See more

Outside of a fundamental restructuring of the internet (here’s looking at you, Web 3.0!), the next best solution for journalists and writers of all stripes is to band together, insist on a more equitable distribution of resources, and begin wielding the considerable agency at our disposal for our own good, rather than that of the men behind the cur... See more

Fast-forward to today, and your options are much improved. Journalists, and many other types of creators, now have what I call “audience portability”. They can bring their fans with them when they switch employers…and many are discovering the best employer is themselves.

Substack sits on top of a trend that’s very dear to me: the democratization of monetized information. In simple terms, writers can earn money by sharing valuable information without the dependency on a publisher or newspaper. That’s not just better for creators but also for consumers because they can have a direct relationship with each other.

Many journalists will join the passion economy and work for themselves but you’ll also have journalist who prefer a steady income and working under an established organization

- A top journalist at a publication creates more value than she can capture, but that changes if he/she has their own audience communication channel (through a website, newsletter, etc.)