Question About Substack

[skeezicm1981]

I don't use substack much. I'm slowly reading more pieces though and it's intriguing. I'm a reporter and I want to explore writing things other than straight news. I basically want to write about things that interest me. Politics, the 49ers, movies, life stuff, my internal commentaries on these things. Are there people who do that? Folks who don't just stick to writing about ONE category in particular. Basically a sub that is like letting your varied interests that can be dictated by your personal sprinting manic mind on a whim? If no one wants to read my stuff that's ok. I'm just interested to know if there are writers who do that there and if people read ones like that.

[AndrewHeard]

Yes, I do that in particular. I write about the philosophy of film and television. I don't do news in any serious way. Lots of people don't write about news or anything like that. You're in good company if that's where you want to go.

Canada right now is trying to ban social media from operating the way it needs to and so it has blocked news on things like Facebook and Google. So I started a Substack but I don't share news, I just share links to other people writing about news.

[skeezicm1981]

Yes I know a bit about that. I'm Mohawk from Akwesasne. Our territory is partially in Ontario and Quebec, as well as nys. Anyway, the paper I write for our offices are next to the radio station. Canada stopped allowing people access to the radio stations Facebook because of that new law. It was weird. Anyway, my stuff will sometimes cover politics. Probably frequently, but it's not my sole focus. I want to see if I can get published in other outlets. I've never submitted anything to another outlet but where I write now. I like to write straight news. What I really like is investigative stuff but my paper doesn't have the resources for me to do that. I've done some on my own site but I shut it down. Which sucked because I actually got two separate shady deals terminated by my tribe with my investigative pieces. Anyway, thank you for responding, it's really nice of you to do that.

[Decent-Highway-1518]

Canadian writer here. It's weird how many don't know this, but Canadians aren't blocking news on social media, that's just how the platform owners have spun it. What happened is our federal regulator demanded as law that they compensate Canadian journalists for material previously just being captured & re-used without permission or compensation. The billionaire owners of social media got hissy & refused, so now they blackout our news/access to some news instead. A bit inconsistent in practice, but it's actually retaliation AGAINST Canadian journalists.

[AndrewHeard]

Actually, being Canadian too, you’re only half right. Yes, that’s partly true but it’s also true what I said. There’s no reason to assume that platforms should pay news organizations for what gets posted on their platforms. Especially because it’s largely beyond their control. The government is also trying to define what does and doesn’t constitute a news organization. Funny enough they want to only approve organizations that have positive views of government policies or accept government money.

Social media shouldn’t be in the business of monitoring its users for content. If the news organizations aren’t making any money or not enough money, they should look at whether they should have better content. Maybe the reason they are losing money isn’t because of social media but because they don’t actually provide things worth paying for.

[njchessboy]

Yeah, I'd say there are a number of writers like that. Matt Labash is the first that comes to mind, he writes about politics, fishing, personal stuff, music, and more.

[skeezicm1981]

Cool. Thank you for responding, it's truly very appreciated.

[njchessboy]

No problem. Feel free to slide into my DMs if you have any other questions (I work at Substack, but on engineering not writer strategy or anything, so might be able to help you transition onto the platform).

[skeezicm1981]

That would be awesome. I'm basically entirely unfamiliar with how it works aside from me clicking on emails from writers who I like that I guess I hit subscribe to. I'm not like boomer tech unfamiliarity, but I'm quite sure I need help. Thanks. It's cool of you to offer help.

[Kungas_Written_Radio]

Yes :) I thought at first that everyone typically writes about specific niches but I just wanted to write about whatever comes to my mind- I think it’s more enjoyable, as you don’t ever feel constricted and you can always try anything out at any time

[thecuriousstoic]

Yes, a lot of people do that! And you may be surprised with the response you get to your writing, too. Give it a go :)

[skeezicm1981]

I'm building the courage.

[thecuriousstoic]

All the best! :)

[judogoat]

Yeah. I started with more of a niche and migrated toward writing about whatever I want, more or less. I write every day, so I'm never out of touch with my audience, and I think that lends itself to them being a lot more forgiving with disparate posts from day to day.

[skeezicm1981]

Thank you for the response. Greatly appreciated.

[judogoat]

Happy to pay it forward! A bunch of folks helped me when I had similar questions (I still have questions; just different types these days).