According to The Wall Street Journal, 2025 was the year the newsletter business reached a fever pitch. Substack counted 5 million paid subscriptions in early 2025, a 67% jump, after raising $100 million at a $1.1 billion valuation. Its competitor Beehiiv grew its number of individual newsletters by over 60% to 140,000, nearly doubling revenue to $28 million. High-profile launches included Tina Brown’s “Fresh Hell” with 75,000 subscribers, investor Michael Burry’s paid Substack, and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Pump Club” on Beehiiv boasting over 1 million subscribers. Major publishers like the New Yorker and brands like Shopify also launched on Substack, while Newsweek and Time moved newsletters to Beehiiv.
The Algorithm Escape Hatch
Here’s the thing: this isn’t just about writers going solo. It’s a full-scale migration. Publishers have watched their traffic from Facebook and Google evaporate, either by platform choice or because of AI summaries. So what’s left? Owning the relationship. A newsletter list is an asset you control. It’s more intimate, as Tina Brown said, and it’s predictable. You’re not begging an algorithm to show your work to 2% of your followers. You’re hitting an inbox. That’s powerful. And for individuals, like that Washington Post TikTok guy who left to start his own thing, it’s about hitting a ceiling at a traditional outlet and realizing your personal brand might be more valuable and flexible on your own.
More Than Just Email
But don’t think of these platforms as just fancy Mailchimp. They’re morphing. Substack is explicitly trying to become a social network where you go to read multiple writers. Beehiiv is pouring money into website tools and podcasting features. They’re becoming full-stack, mini-media companies for creators. The business models are evolving, too. Substack takes its 10% cut and is now experimenting with ads. Beehiiv has a tiered fee structure and its own ad network. They’re not just facilitating subscriptions; they’re building monetization ecosystems. The endgame seems to be creating a hub so sticky that you never need to leave.
The Big Question: Sustainability
So, is this a bubble? I mean, Michael Burry is warning of an AI bubble on his Substack, which is kinda meta. Look, the growth numbers are insane, but Substack itself isn’t even profitable yet. There’s a looming question of subscriber fatigue. How many $5 or $39/month newsletters can one person realistically pay for? The market feels hot, maybe feverish. And when legacy brands like the New Yorker jump in, you know a trend has peaked in terms of hype. But the fundamental driver—the desire for a direct, unmediated connection—isn’t going away. The platforms that win will be the ones that help creators diversify revenue (ads, podcasts, sites) beyond just subscription nagging. They have to build a business, not just a list.
What It Means For Readers
Basically, we’re unbundling. Instead of subscribing to a whole newspaper, you subscribe to individual writers or niches you trust. That’s great for depth and voice, but maybe not so great for discovering opposing views or funding expensive investigative journalism. Your media diet becomes hyper-personalized. Is that good? It’s comfortable. It’s reinforcing. It makes you feel like you’re part of a club. But it also further fragments our shared information landscape. We’re trading the messy, broad town square for a million curated living rooms. The newsletter boom gave us an escape from the algorithms. The next challenge might be escaping our own self-curated filter bubbles.
