This is such an incredibly important note.

Audience growth doesn’t just grow on trees. For the past 15 years, FB / IG, YouTube, Twitter, etc. were amazing places to build audience and drive that audience elsewhere to actually make money. This is true of all consumer products - big and small.

All the big tech / social platforms have made sharp movements away from being used as audience building platforms, pushing more toward walled silo’s & “everything app” visions. Totally makes sense for them, but sucks for people who rely on those platforms for their business.

Much has been written about Substack becoming a social platform, with a lot of great critiques along the way. But if you want to help writers make more money & attain independence, you have to solve the problem around audience growth. And Substack is well-positioned to do that bc of the business model / 10% revenue share.