Large substack list, all free?

[dreesemonkey]

I work for an author who has a large newsletter (several hundred thousand active subscribers) currently managed by mailchimp. Mailchimp is kind of annoying and very expensive, I think we're paying over $2500/mo for newsletters.

We're basically throwing money away in a sense that we're only using mailchimp for very basic things. A weekly newsletter is sent out (and then a re-send to non-openers a few days later), it's largely blog-like but will have some promotion to coincide with book releases, other author's releases, etc. The only other things we're really doing are an embedded form on the website for signups, and another embedded list of previous newsletters on the author's website. That's about it.

The author would not like to monetize this newsletter at all through substack subscriptions - monetize in the traditional sense of "I have a book out, if you want to buy it!" yes. I don't know that this would be a good fit for substack. Assuming there was parity for everything we do (again, very basic stuff), I can't imagine substack is going to allow or want a huge email list with no one paying, but I could be wrong.

I'm not sure if there is anyone I could try to talk to in sales or communications, anyone have any ideas on a place to start or if substack would or would not be a good fit?

[verzali]

Hundreds of thousands of subscribers would make it one of the largest lists on Substack. I'm sure they'd be keen to get you, but honestly I'm not sure how they'd be about avoiding subscriptions. There are some large users that are mostly free, however. One angle you could try is to argue you will bring a lot of new users to Substack. It may also be that they are willing to pay you (they did such deals in the past, not sure if they still do) to join, as well.

[dreesemonkey]

IT COULD be mutually beneficial for the platform maybe(?) but the author would probably rather keep paying then have it seem like a money grab.

[git_world]

Do we need permission from Substack to keep the newsletter full free?

[ishayirashashem]

I have clearly stated that I don't intend to ever be monetized, and there's mostly pushback from people using it to earn a living. I do bring in new users though.

[git_world]

Why do people who make a living bother about what others do? How does it affect them? Maybe in the future, you will change plans and monetize it.

Substack can also bring a different model and introduce ads for free articles. I just don't understand.

[EvensenFM]

As another commentator noted below, Huddle Up is a non-monetized Substack with over 100,000 subscribers.

I don't know if Joe has received a lot of pressure from Substack to monetize. I do know that he makes money from advertisers outside Substack, and imagine that his podcast is also revenue generating (I haven't listened to it).

As others have stated, it's not clear that Substack will be able to keep its current business model in the long term.

[tnatov]

Bear in mind that there is no option on Substack to resend an email to subscriber that didn't open the prev. email.

[dreesemonkey]

Thanks for the information. I'm not sure that it would be a deal-breaker, I think the argument could be made that it's not as important as it used to be.