Q&A: Michael Spencer speaks on the newsletter economy
Michael and I caught up and discussed the changing world of newsletters as well as his recent success on Substack
I’ve known Michael Spencer since 2016. He’s been a prolific tech news writer for a number of years, earning multiple LinkedIn Top Voice and Medium Top Writer distinctions. He gradually pivoted to newsletters and recently found success on Substack, notably through AI Supremacy (a newsletter with nearly 9,000 subscribers).
We recently caught up and discussed various topics around the newsletter economy, as well as his experience with Substack.
Phil Siarri: Hi Michael. First of all, Happy New Year. Do you mind introducing yourself for those who may not be familiar with your journey?
Michael Spencer: Hi Phil. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to reflect on 2022. I am a futurism obsessed curator and analyst. I am also a prolific blogger active during the last roughly ten years. I’m a platform blogger that has migrated from LinkedIn to Medium to now Substack and other newsletter platforms. I host over 15 different newsletters on niche topics I’m interested in like AI, quantum computing, space news, data science and other domains.
I do this mostly due to some intrinsic fascination with emerging tech and innovation, rather than for profit. For a living, I used to freelance, help startups grow their marketing, ghostwrite and do influencer campaigns. Recently, I’ve been looking more into doing what I like doing while gaining paid subscribers, doing sponsored ad campaigns and finding other means of diversified solo-entrepreneur monetization.
PS: What was your main motivation over the switch to Substack?
MS: I actually like the ideological hook that we need to move away from algorithmic feeds and advertising based walled gardens. Substack has some qualities of non-censorship, free speech and peer-driven recommendation flow that I admire. Also purely in the platform life cycle, where I used to write on LinkedIn and Medium, there’s been less innovation and real monetization opportunities as of late. My pivot to Substack which I started seriously in December, 2021 was actually “late”. In 2022 alone dozens of newsletters in my niche of AI have formed by very qualified legitimate authors in the space with huge followings on Twitter and elsewhere.
My main motivation has always been to continue my coverage, research and constant analysis of the news cycle, PR cycle and also dig more into the startups, topics and research of fundamental research and innovation. I’m my own media think tank and research collaborator, a far cry from a media startup or empire in the making - but I just enjoy covering my niche of futurism content that much!
Substack affords me a landing page that’s more holistic where I own my own email list, at the very least, if I had migrated with my followers on LinkedIn and Medium, I would have brought with me 350,000 unique readers - but they did not facilitate this possibility of doing that. So starting on Substack which is tethered to Twitter, I’ve had to start from ground zero of zero email list and no Twitter followers. Platforms are typically predatory on their users, writers and creators. Medium writers working for pennies to the article, Microsoft boosting those that say good things about LinkedIn, is basically the status-quo.
I enjoy challenges however and have grown my modest newsletters to some initial point of product-market fit where there is some legit demand for my topics. However, Substack is best known for political content and an American audience. I am thus one of the early pioneers of the “Technology” Newsletters there, where I went full-time with newsletter platforms more due to necessity and inclination than due to it being financially viable. I have been bootstrapping, living in functional poverty with limited savings for - well around since when the pandemic began.
I am experimenting. I am building a talent collective, looking for ad sponsors and doing more paid content with paywall breaks all to find a way to serve my audience without too much poverty. It has become a hustle, in that I am grinding in the creator economy where many workers are actually underpaid. Without the endorsement of being featured on Substack, being recommended by big writers or having a Twitter audience, I’m left to my own devices as a self-made writer passionate about their niche. I had no “list of emails”, although I did have a modest wordpress following, a blog I had to shut down due to the inability to pay the fees to keep it running.
So today in 2023, I am very reliant on Substack’s peer-recommendation system based on recommendations, referrals and recommended network flow. I even moved to a foreign country (ed note: from Canada) to try to reduce my cost of living to extend my writing ambitions. I rose to amateur prominence on LinkedIn and Medium, though my dogged determination and prolific capacity to cover new angles in emerging tech. I’m hoping Substack’s overall momentum can rub off on me and the coverage I like to build - where my curation mixes with my op-eds, without spamming too many external links.
PS: Tell us about your main newsletter AI Supremacy. What is your main goal with such?
MS: AI Supremacy is my flagship newsletter on AI and where the bulk of my full-time hours goes to. It’s based on AI news at the intersection of society, business and technology. So it’s partly educational but also saving professionals time if they want to keep attuned to what’s going on.
I get to cover emerging tech from the angle of new startups, Big Tech, research papers, AI in healthcare and other trends. Since I write so much, I’ve had to also spin off other newsletters related to this such as Artificial Intelligence Survey and Data Science Learning Center, which cover additionally topics I’m interested in like robotics, coding, the Cloud, data engineering and so forth.
My main driver of traffic to AI Supremacy is my coverage on LinkedIn, where I conduct polls, share analysis and review breaking news in technology and business to an audience grown over the last decade. As such, AI Supremacy is a case study in if LinkedIn (and not Twitter) can drive a Substack’s growth. I think it can, it’s just a bit slower in its ability to do so.
Without being an established writer, real journalist, actual influencer - Substack did not think it was a great idea that I start multiple Newsletters. However I had to follow my core interest in being an analyst that is more multi-niche driven. If I only had a single newsletter, I’d not be stimulated enough - even if I may have been able to grow it faster or produce better quality content.
AI Supremacy is also a name that denotes my interest in the competition of the U.S. with China in terms of AI and innovation and has untapped geopolitical potential. But instead of buzzy op-eds, for the most part I am writing in reflection of the actual news cycle in AI. So I wanted original op-eds to complement the curation of what's actually going on. I also wanted some accountability journalism aspect that is not just a PR node for Big Tech but actually has some critical judgment. A.I. Supremacy is thus a mix of things mostly related to the future of A.I.
In 2022, AI Supremacy is the only newsletter I was able to scale at all, and most of that occurred in November, when I put more content behind paywall breaks. I produced more free content in 2022 than I was able to count. My usual week would have me write 15 to 20 pieces across my 15+ newsletters. Had you been reading AI Supremacy you might have already felt it was too frequent and burned out as a reader, while I was actually writing a lot more. In newsletter growth, this is absolutely not a good strategy to put quantity ahead of quality. However to some extent that’s just a reflection of my core interests, as opposed to the business side in me not optimizing for monetization.
Overall in 2022, I’ve enjoyed the challenge of being a creator in the newsletter economy. It’s challenging, stimulating and moreover I think I have something to contribute to my topics of interest. AI Supremacy is likely one of the more solid newsletters out there related to AI in the breaking news cycle.
PS: You built a solid email list of nearly 9,000 subscribers in regards to AI Supremacy. What strategies helped you achieve those? What about things that did not work out as expected?
MS: AI Supremacy is a more general newsletter, it’s impossible to please all audiences. I don’t write for clickbait and hype generation, as thus I had no viral hits or Reddit or Twitter big takes. Most of my traffic came from LinkedIn in 2022, I’m hoping that in 2023 more of that will come for Substack’s peer recommendation discovery loop.
I’m working hard on the concept of getting more writer referrals that stack from the ground up in a win-win instead of the recommendations that’s more a pyramid incentive, where we hope a bigger Newsletter might somehow choose our small Newsletter to recommend. I’m involved in the community. I try to support other writers since I recognize the peer network in our niche is important in a non-algorithmic platform.
Finding the right Subreddit to your niche is also fairly important that does not see your work as purely self-promotional. I’m slowly developing my Twitter also since Substack is tethered to it, in the words of Casey Newton (ed note: the founder of The Platformer newsletter) and others I’m forced to do this to survive. Marketing and networking is thus all fairly important, it’s not organic, you have to work for every new free reader. And you know many of those readers are not targeted to your topic, as my audience from LinkedIn is totally mostly random and un-targeted. This means only perhaps 15% of my audience is truly going to stick with me for the long-term.
So effectively free reader growth is incredibly important because you are also fighting against reader churn, which on a non-segmented Email list is also rather high. Even with Substack Boost and pre-cancel discount offers, you have to grow faster and convert some of those to paid just to have a sustainable future. Had my work on LinkedIn or Medium meant having my own email list, I would not have to spend the 24 months it will take just to build a basic foundation. If you are serious you need to build high-quality content for 24 to 36 months without expecting a miracle to see results and compounding growth. A lot of writers on Substack don’t realize this, it’s a long-game.
While it may be less algorithmic, you are still dealing with the legacy cult-of-personality dynamics of the internet. You are still having to try to grow your niche, on Twitter, gain some free traffic from Reddit, Hacker News, and experiment with LinkedIn posts. So you are grinding not just as a writer, but as a creator with the marketing and lead generation stuff. As your Newsletter grows, you begin also to get more traffic from Google and SEO. I now on Substack have over 40 Newsletters recommending me, even if they are small, the organic discovery thus slowly begins to compound.
Growing a Twitter hasn’t really worked. It hasn’t moved the needle to attract new readers. But having a Newsletter brand account on Twitter and LinkedIn is still a good idea, if you are capable of maintaining them. On Reddit, you just need to find the right communities. Spending time in Discords and Facebook Groups didn’t work for me. Creating viral Tweets or LinkedIn posts also didn’t work for me. Reaching out to bigger writers or influencers didn’t work for me. Most things didn’t work, but I was trying so hard that the few that did, gave me a little boost.
PS: Now let’s talk about the newsletter platform ecosystem. It seems many platforms have popped up in the last few years. Do you think consolidation is inevitable or is there still room for growth?
MS: Substack and beehiiv are driving innovative product features that will continue to improve audience discovery and retention. The problem is walled gardens like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook are so stale. There’s a reaction to algorithmic feeds, ads and walled garden echo bubbles which is starting to mean that real churn is occurring especially in the West and other developed countries.
Substack, which provides an alternative to reading and writing in a non-algorithmic sense, shows a lot of promise and momentum. If you look at LinkedIn’s 41 Big Ideas for 2023, check out number 21. We need a better internet where we choose private networks that value content and niche topics differently. It is also a more educational internet. So while being a creator pioneer I also feel like I’m contributing to a better version of the internet. As someone “dedicated to a craft” it appeals to me to be part of something with new momentum. Can I or someone like me find a place in the future of media that’s more edutainment orientated? Maybe.
Substack is a small startup, but its growth especially in political content has been tremendous. Will other categories start to blossom there? Its new app is not a huge deal, but if you are looking for quality secret content, you might find Substack is a garden of healthy and varied perspectives and fresh insights. Twitter could seek to acquire Substack, however Twitter’s financials remain in danger in the short to mid-term.
I hope that Substack remains independent. If we look at WhatsApp or YouTube or Instagram, they lost what made them special by being acquired. Even Microsoft acquiring Substack would be a better outcome than Twitter. Microsoft has LinkedIn Learning that makes some sense. If Substack built its own internal course publishing system like Thinkific, and added more ways to grow its revenue for Creators, it would be ideal. Substack Meetings has potential, it’s the ability of creators to charge 1-on-1 consultations.
In 2022, beehiiv emerged as the future competitor of Substack, which it badly needed due to Reveue (acquired by Twitter) and Facebook Bulletin basically being shut down. A lot of new Sustack Newsletters are those that were writing on Medium, a platform that’s also not very attuned to the needs or monetization of Creators. So as a Creator you have to choose your platform with a view for how they actually treat those writers, are they gig-economy workers or something more? Can they build a personal brand, community and actually have some ownership economy empowerment? I think on Substack they can. Certainly they can as well on Ghost or beehiiv, but not to the same extent or discovery and retention built-in. Beehiiv has basically displaced Ghost as the main competitor of Substack. There are other Substack clones in other parts of the world I am watching.
PS: Please expand on your last point.
MS: Ghost, beehiiv, Tealfeed and many others deserve watching. Substack takes 10% + 3% from stripe. The economics of this could be challenged. Web 3 options and Mirror.xyz have been disappointing. Medium’s cycles of decline have been very horrible. LinkedIn’s lack of innovation after it acquired Pulse back in 2013 have been totally mind-boggling oversights. The total lack of innovation in the space allowed a16z backed Substack to emerge.
As a Twitter alternative, I like a16z backed Post News the most. I am awaiting Bluesky Social. Writing platforms haven’t really progressed much in the last decade, so newsletter platforms are where it’s at in 2023. I would have expected a Reddit or Discord or an Amazon Twitch, to build out writing platforms like Medium, but sadly they didn’t.
Will Twitter ever launch Notes or longer Tweet capabilities in all remains to be seen. Substack is a bright light in a sea of darkness with regards to content, creator and writing platforms. I’ve seen so many betrayals of creators and writers, I’ve completely lost count. Neither Silicon Valley, or crypto or blockchain communities seem to take the creator economy seriously. I’ve followed every Medium and Substack spin-off from Hackernoon to Every.
Subsack and beehiiv are doing the best work in 2023. It’s important to join the best.
PS: Do you think monetization opportunities are the most important differentiator when it comes to choosing a specific platform?
MS: Substack has pushed paid subs as the answer. While ideologically I agree with them, for impoverished creators it’s not a great gig, because the time to scale is too slow. Perhaps the diversified solo-entrepreneur movement needs to step up its game and we need to listen to the ideology of rich founders a bit less. In its early days Medium too was fueled by rampant ideological hooks and hopes. Straight from the mouth of San Francisco venture capitalists.
Beehiiv doesn’t take a cut of revenue, but has fees for hosting like a traditional ESP would provide. When Substack creators truly build empires they sometimes migrate off of Substack to Ghost or another solution. If you are big enough, it doesn’t matter. A Sahil Bloom or The Dispatch. But Substack’s discovery and retention is of immense value, it all depends on what stage of growth you are at.
Substack can lead to podcasting, audio layers, collabs, networking, in-app chat, meetings and tons of other things. Is that worth the 10% you give to them? It probably is for most writers and creators. Even YouTube and TikTok creators are making Substack newsletters, and it’s primarily just for the money. Of course they know that building a community is key to retention. So monetization is also about not just growth but retention at scale. It really is a number game at that point.
Beehiiv may be even better at recommendations and referrals, but does it have the same community building features and retention as Substack? Probably not, at least not yet in 2023. So monetization is just part of the picture. What your goals are as a creator and what niche you are in also informs your choices. Many people build controversial racy political narrative newsletters on Substack, because they know what sells.
A creator like me just wants to cover a niche and goes to where they think they can do that in the healthiest way where platforms are less likely to abuse creators and their rights. I need to trust that the platform is actively building features that may in the future be useful to me, even if they aren't currently. If it felt like a risk to start a Substack pre-pandmeic, post pandemic it’s a low hanging fruit.
A newsletter is the perfect minimally viable product, in that you don’t even have to write once a week, it could be just once a month, if that. You decide the niche, cadence, and the place it has in your personal brand online. Usually your home-base is somewhere else, and Substack compliments what you are doing online to begin with. This could be a Thinkific course, banter on Twitter, a consulting business on LinkedIn or whatever else. In theory, you could have different tiers, from courses to paid Sponsors, and paid subs could actually be more like 15-20% of your diversified revenue.
For anyone aspiring to be a participant in the Creator Economy, or have a role in the future of the Metaverse, having a Substack is just nice-to-have, bordering on a must-have. For legacy bloggers like me who want to keep writing, it’s potentially our home base for the foreseeable future.
PS: What kind of advice would you give to a person who wants to start a newsletter? Especially someone that doesn’t have an extensive email list.
MS: The way Substack stacks and compounds is all through its own discovery network flow. The company claims around 40% of growth and 13% of paid subs are derived from this network discovery flow. Since that is peer based instead of algorithmic based, networking with peers specific to your niche (whose readers may benefit from your content the most) is clearly the way to go. The relative number and quality of recommending Newsletters is fairly important. People all do the same thing, they recommend absurdly popular Newsletters, which is a terrible strategy. You should be recommending newsletters in your niche that started around the same time you did, to grow along with your cohort. It’s built on a reciprocity loop.
You could also actively try to recruit and get writer referrals in your niche. It’s pointless trying to get lead gen from Twitter and LinkedIn as they are today. It’s much easier just to mix with other creators like you. I write about these kinds of things in my Creator Economy Tips newsletter.
You need to actively identify where your niche congregates, that could be Facebook groups, discords, subreddits or somewhere else. Maybe it’s actually TikTok or Instagram. Networking and sharing your work where your audience lives is very important. Having a YouTube or a TikTok to reach younger audiences could also be important for visibility.
Developing a niche where readers know what they can expect is also very important. Having a newsletter name that stands out and basic things like a regular posting schedule and an about page are key. Having key pillars in your niche and a solid unique value proposition is rather important. It’s incredible how many people will pay $5 to read your Newsletter if you are offering real value to people like you.
There’s nothing quite as fulfilling as becoming an expert in your niche and a newsletter experience affords you to do that, at your own pace.
The biggest advice though would be to prepare to be doing this for the long-term, it takes incredible patience to build an audience. Stacking recommendations and referrals in 2023 is the fastest way to compound your growth. Being relentless to find diversified revenue streams is also important. The bigger your list is, the more sponsored ads begin to make sense. You end up being able to charge a flat fee that can be profitable.
PS: Thanks for your time Michael. Anything else you’d like to add or promote?
MS: I’m actually interested in mentoring newsletter creators and being a part of their journey. I’m always tinkering on this path. I have a subreddit for writers to post their work to get Reddit’s SEO boost here: https://www.reddit.com/r/substackpostmedium/. If you DM me on Twitter or LinkedIn, I’m generally responsive, otherwise you can send me an email at michaelkspencer2025@gmail.com.
Thanks for the opportunity to share about my journey Phil.