WE’RE HEADED TO A NEW CONTENT FRONTIER:THE VIBRANT HINTERLAND THAT IS SUBSTACK

By Claire Keys Pytlik, Fractional Copywriter, Creative Leader, and Brand Voice Consultant

Every Thursday, THE BOARD BRIEFING brings you curated industry insights directly from our Members to your inbox.

About nine months ago, I wrote a post about Substack, which gained a bit of traction. It wasn’t necessarily an ode to what Substack is—a digital storytelling platform—but more so an explanation of all the things it brilliantly isn’t: “the official positioning for Substack doesn’t contain the word ‘content,’ ‘publishing,’ ‘audience or ‘growth.’” I wrote. “Instead, the brand calls itself ‘a new economic engine for culture.’”

The approach resonated then—and it really resonates now. Nine months later, in a world with an even faster pace and a wholly new set of conditions, the appeal (and perhaps necessity) of Substack is even more palpable. Then? 20 million active users, 3 million paid—a figure that has since surpassed the 5 million mark in a matter of months.

It’s where beloved authors are. Where cookbook writers are. Where poets and journalists and essayists and thought leaders and strategists and statisticians and botanists are. I laugh to myself about the many times I figured the demise of the brand newsletter might be imminent. Because on Substack, it’s fully regained its zeal.

And that’s all thanks to re-bolstered belief and support of the creator economy. Like I said back in the fall, Substack doesn’t check a lot of the traditional boxes: it isn’t swathed in an algorithm. It isn’t hardwired for instant access and curation. For many authors, it’s a success that’s slower, organic and hard-won. Substacks are found, followed and monetarily supported by individuals, gaining fandom and influence with time. In some ways, it’s the digital equivalent of pulling the book off the store shelf. (And the influence is big: the top 10 writers on Substack earn a collective $25 million in paid subscribership annually.)

This approach makes Substack a sort of otherworldly destination on the Internet: “a vibrant hinterland for deeper storytelling, behind-the-curtain content, building in public and road-testing experimental ideas.” So when April Uchitel, founder and CEO of WE ARE THE BOARD, talked to me about the idea of taking THE BOARD over to Substack—a journey to the hinterland—I was an immediate yes.

THE BOARD is a collective of coveted fractional experts. The top players in their fields. Bona-fide specialists with wisdom to impart. Authors, creatives and storytellers, many of whom already have incredible, established Substacks all their own. (For starters, check out Rachel Roberts Mattox’s The Soul of Brand, Christine Morrison’s writing in black and white, Steve Tate’s DEEP THINK, Jamie Rosen’s Office of the Surface, and Kirsten Ludwig’s GOOD THINKING, among others.)

These powerful voices abound, and many are captured weekly in this very Newsletter—but THE BOARD’s official home on Substack had yet to be built. We craved a place for livelier discussion, deeper exploration, two-way (and three-way and five-way) conversations, and most importantly, honesty and vulnerability. April built THE BOARD on the realities of how work and life braid together—and now it’s time to excavate the stories that lie within that pattern. It’s shaping your own business while shaping others’. Watching AI potentially render a skill—or hell, a whole field—obsolete. Raising kids while caring for parents, all the while on Zoom. It’s corporate structures shape-shifting and corporate ladders being abandoned. Botoxing and brand-building and travel budgeting and the headnod that—yes—these can all be part of the same sentence. Businesses slowing down and businesses speeding up. And same for our biological clocks and career roadmaps.

As April said to me on a planning call, “It all applies. And it all belongs here.” And that there is the genesis of our new channel—one that’s launching next week, on June 24th to be exact.

I hope you’ll join us over there. And I hope it will lead you to more Substacks and voices you love. Because the “new economic engine for culture?” It’s just starting to rev. 

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