SUCCEEDING ON SUBSTACK IS TOUGHER THAN IT LOOKS
Many
years ago (and more recently again in the midst and aftermath of the pandemic)
I warned the thousands of smart, middle-aged, corporate executives who had been
fired and had decided to embark upon an entrepreneurial adventure (which would
be seeded by their severance pay and/or their savings and retirement funds) that
it was much, much harder to launch and sustain any startup venture than they
imagined and that the vast majority of them were utterly unsuited for the task.
(See https://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/should-you-start-a-businss-now.html.)
Not
only were so many of these folks temperamentally unfit for the constant ups and
downs of the process and completely unaware of the many operational and
cultural differences in the DIY startup world, but their past experience would
also not only weigh them down and be wholly discounted, but it would also make them
even more unlikely to succeed. (See https://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/so-your-kid-wants-to-be-an-entrepreneur.html.) Many of these people couldn’t even run their
own bath. Not everyone is cut out to be a diva, a prophet, a speed demon, or a
huckster.
Unfortunately,
between the massive federal layoffs initiated by the Orange Monster, the
cutbacks and staff reductions driven by threats to reduce or eliminate grant
and public media funding, and the accelerating demise in general of so many
parts of the media business, as Yogi Berra used to say: “it’s déjà vu all over
again”.
Worse
yet, no one seems to recall the debacles of the dot com years, the implosions
of the real estate and financial markets, or the fact that these days the “gig”
economy and the world of wunderkind “influencers” look more and more like a
“share the scraps” cesspool – lots of noise, no signal, and no money – inhabited
by a miniscule number of winners and millions of losers.
So,
with specific reference to opinion writers, talking heads and news readers, and
former network journalists, it’s been very hard for me to watch the daily
departures of mature, experienced, and well-respected media mavens and mentors
who are all intent on jumping with both feet into the new highly uncertain world
of blogs, newsletters, podcasts, and videos. They’ll all be Substackers soon - whatever
that may eventually mean and whether or not they end up liking it. I hope they
learn to like it because there’s no going back for them even if there’s still a
glimmer of the great news businesses that used to be.
And,
as hard as their lives had arguably become in an environment where the truth
took a consistent and humiliating backseat to corporate and financial considerations
as well as outright fear of Trump’s threats and lawsuits, they’re about to go
from repeatedly pushing a stone painfully up a hill like Sisyphus to racing rapidly
down the other side while hanging on for dear life with both hands. And, just
as you learn in racing, in the insane hurry up economy, nobody waits for
you.
They’ll
learn quite quickly that other people don’t always dream your dream and that
their allegedly “built-in audiences” are frugal, fickle and lazy to boot.
They’ll basically love you ‘til they don’t and the Patreon model (https://www.patreon.com/login ) that they’ll pay because they love you or
want to support your crusade is a financial fantasy. They’re most likely not to
follow you anywhere, even for free, because free isn’t cheap enough. Brand
extensions aren’t automatic or givens: Cheetos Lipstick, Harley-Davidson
Cologne and Colgate Beef Lasagna were just a few attempts that bit the bullet in
no time at all.
As
someone who’s seen and written about these kinds of radical transitions for
more than 50 years, I feel an obligation as well as the need to revisit my
earlier cautions and to offer a few important observations that are likely to
have been overlooked in the frenzy to move forward.
You Can’t “Ape” Your Way to Success.
In
this noisy and cluttered new media world where everyone is competing for a
small slice of a finite and shrinking pool of attention, the primary key to
success is differentiation at a time and in a context where thousands of others
are trying to do the same thing. You need to start from the premise that no
one’s interested in the old models or the tired formats of the past. And
honestly, older white-bread white guys aren’t in such great demand either.
The
“news”, such as it is these days, is already everywhere, stale by the time you
see it, and free. Regurgitating the same old stories – even in an ultra-timely
fashion – simply won’t get the job done and no one wants to pay for it. You’ve
got to have a new take, have a hook to set yourself apart, figure out how to
attract a viable portion of the world’s attention at least for a moment, and
then deliver consistent and valuable content every day in order to hold your audience.
It’s a “what have I heard from you lately” world with a million alternatives
just a click away.
While
John Chancellor once said that the function of good
journalism is to take information and add value to it, the truth is that the media
business today is far more about entertainment than education. It’s about
looking, listening and laughing rather than leisurely learning. About fear and
anger rather than fashion or foresight. Enragement, not engagement. The key
seems to be pithy, bite-sized, observations and outsized opinions rather than
painstaking analysis, careful commentary, or attempts to prove anything. People
aren’t looking for proof – they already know what they believe – they’re
looking for confirmation and reassurance. The truth has as much to do with this
process as mustard does with ice cream.
You Don’t Get Paid Until You Pay Your Dues.
Ignoring
the wisdom and lessons of decades urging folks to try before they buy, whoever
is advising these newcomers to put out a few interesting paragraphs and then
slam up a subscription paywall to interrupt the initial experience is a moron.
This strategy is a slight cut above pure clickbait, but to any serious person
and interested reader, it’s just an offensive turnoff and utterly
counterproductive because instead of introducing the prospect to compelling samples
of the author’s work, it shuts the door without a single example and generally
results in a swift click away. Email subscriptions, after some introductory
exposure, make sense especially because you build a direct connection to your
reader, but paywalls are a complete waste.
You’ve
got to be willing to invest your time and effort for a while at least without
expecting any financial return regardless of your experience, talent, brand or
prior reputation. The best players under-promise and over-deliver, which makes
for a strong connection, a lasting relationship, and even a willingness to pay.
All smart business is ultimately based on patiently building relationships. If
you’re in it just to make a quick buck, you might just as well be selling
shoes. You don’t want to be splitting up the loot before you rob the
train.
As
much as it can appear to be a frantic race and a contest, in the long run, the
people who survive will have built a small, but passionate community of
followers who are willing to support their work financially because they trust the
authors and because they find real value in the work. The authors, in turn,
will be authentically connected to their followers and able, at the same time,
to create content that is meaningful and satisfying both to themselves and to their
fans. It’s not about beating the others; it’s about building a valuable business
for yourself that you can be proud of. You get the chicken by hatching the egg,
not smashing it.
You Might Not Have the Stomach to Do What It
Takes.
One
of the reasons I retired from practicing law was that, as corporate litigation
became increasingly expensive and lengthy, the clients eventually lost their
appetite for the battle and their willingness to pay the required costs for
doing the necessary work correctly and completely. Doing a halfway job wasn’t
my style just as discouraged and disappointed doctors every day are told by
indifferent clerks and flunkies working for insurance companies that they don’t
care to pay for certain medical tests which the professionals feel are
essential to properly diagnose and treat their patients. Even apart from the
desire to take pride in the work you do, no one gets into these professions to
do a crappy job.
In
the same fashion, experienced journalism professionals who’ve spent their lives
and done their work according to long-established standards of honesty,
fairness and objectivity - supported by talented staff and plenty of resources
- may simply not have the stomach or willingness to take things of importance,
depth and substance on the fly without the time to properly investigate or
prepare and then proceed to simplify and hollow them out so that they can be swallowed
by their audience without chewing or thinking. Patience, prudence, modesty and humility have
no real place in the attention economy. It’s a war zone with no bottom.
You Might Not Have the Stamina to Stick It Out.
It’s
hard, if not impossible, for a man or woman in their 40s or 50s with a full life,
a family, a home and various other financial commitments, to compete effectively
and flat-out every day on a 24/7 basis with kids in their teens and young
adults who have absolutely nothing else in their lives, no reputation or
integrity to preserve and protect, no moral inhibitions, incomparable levels of
shamelessness, and few ethical constraints. The new adult entrants talk about
freedom and independence without recalling Janis Joplin’s note that: “Freedom is
just another word for nothin’ left to lose”. They’re putting their whole lives
and careers on the line to compete with kids having their latest lark and
living on their parents’ dime.
Outsiders
and grown-ups rarely understand the daily grind of feeding the content beast along
with the physical pressures, mental stress and difficulty of getting on the
non-stop creation treadmill. You’ve got to fill the void with something every
day. When you add in the responsibilities of developing, marketing, managing
and operating the other aspects of building a new business in an impossibly
competitive industry with thousands of players all chasing a shrinking and
cluttered pool of interested readers, listeners and viewers, it’s easy to see
why it’s not a business for the faint-hearted or for those who are already
fatigued and burnt out.
You Might Have Already Missed the Boat.
Finally, and
unfortunately, you can’t turn back the hands of time and you might just be too
late to the party to make a go of it. These spaces are already crowded, and
they already demonstrate the same “winner take all” tendencies of the tech
world. A few big names will emerge, a few platforms will dominate and deliver,
and the costs of entry and participation - which once formed significant moats -
have already become trivial and are about to be totally obliterated by A.I.
You’ll know in relatively short order the
answers to some of the critical questions above. If it’s not working or working
for you, don’t kid yourself and continue. It’s never too soon to turn back if
you’re on the wrong road.
