5 things happening on Substack that no one's talking about

From book tours to venture capital and new media formats

I set myself one goal at the beginning of this year: quietly replace Instagram with Substack. Read more, find interesting writers and publications, understand Notes, understand how engagement works on here,.. all the things. As with many motivated early-2026 things, I did not quite stick with it. But since we have not crossed the magical halfway line of this year yet, it’s not too late. That’s why I’m dedicating this whole article to my new favorite platform, App, social channel (?)...

Substack now has over 50 million active subscriptions, with paid subscriptions jumping from around 2 million in late 2023 to over 5 million by early 2025 and reportedly crossing 8.4 million paid subscriptions in Q1 of this year. The platform is valued at $1.1 billion after its $100M Series C last summer. Writers collectively earned $450 million in gross revenue in 2025 alone. Lena Dunham (more on her later) put it perfectly when she said that every single Substack follower is the equivalent of many more Instagram or X followers, because Substackers are way more likely to actually follow through and buy a book. All of that to say, something big is happening here. And after spending the last few weeks properly paying attention, here's what I'm seeing:

1. Hospitality brands are discovering Substack

I’m seeing more and more brands finding their way onto Substack. One industry particularly dear to my heart, since it was my marketing home for many years, is hospitality. At first glance, it might not be obvious what a hospitality brand would showcase on a newsletter platform, but that’s exactly the point, just make it yours.

Exhibit A: Ace Hotel, the very first hotel brand on the platform. Their space on the platform is appropriately called ‘Room with a View’ and they biweekly dispatch a newsletter about their Artist in Residence program written by Shama Rahman. It’s rooted in visual culture and brings together an editorial sensibility with stunning content and beautiful photography. There's zero selling energy. Just beautiful content you'd actually subscribe to for the sake of it. Bonus mini trend within this trend: Substack's co-publishing feature lets a piece appear on both the brand's profile and the writer's profile, which opens up nice ways to grow collaboratively.

2. Book tours are happening on here now

Lena Dunham, writer and producer of the Millenial hit show Girls recently showed everyone how it’s done with the launch of her memoir Famesick. Together with her strategist Dolly Meckler she essentially staged a Substack book tour, guest-appearing on publications across the platform that she genuinely reads and loves.

Where you used to physically tour TV shows (truth be told, she also did that), bookstores, and big-scale conferences, there’s now a new way. You visit the writers and publications that your audience already loves. And it worked. Famesick hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

3. Substack launched its own media show

Last week, Substack launched Open Tab, a brand new interview series hosted by co-founder Hamish McKenzie and Head of New Media Hanne Winarsky. Each episode, they sit down with a different independent media founder at a neighbourhood bar, restaurant, or café that the guest actually frequents. The first episode dropped on May 7th featuring Emily Sundberg, founder of Feed Me (150k monthly readers). Other guests include Esther Perel and a journalist who wrote the definitive book on Elon Musk.

Substack doesn’t need a TV network or a streaming platform to do this. They’re just... doing it. On their own platform. They’re becoming the home for show formats, whether it’s a live podcast, a long-form video interview, or something entirely new, while staying true to their core values. No shorts, no swiping, no algorithmic chaos. Just a wholesome, integrated experience that feels curated and intentional.

4. Chat is turning newsletters into communities

Substack’s Chat feature has been around for a bit, but what’s interesting is how creators are using it now. It’s becoming less of an add-on and more of the actual engine behind the most engaged publications. Think of it as your own private community space where you make the rules.

Anna Mackenzie for instance hosts her weekly “Shoot your Shot challenge” in her chat. Hundreds of people sharing their moonshot pitch every Wednesday (together). Other creators like Wes Pearce from Escape the Cubicle run a weekly Notes Boost in his Substack Chat every Tuesday and Saturday, 300+ writers show up each week to share each other's work and engage with each other's Notes. And that in a time where you would think the written word is losing value, given that everyone now writes thanks to all our favourite AI models.

5. VC has gone from backing Substack to being on Substack

Venture capital, an industry historically built on closed doors, warm intros, and who-you-know dynamics, is increasingly playing out on Substack.

It’s happening from two sides. On one hand, you have the VCs themselves writing. Marc Andreessen’s a16z , prior VC, now self-described media company, is heavily invested (not just in Substack’s Series A). The firm significantly increased its focus on the platform in late 2025, bringing on Alex Danco as Editor at Large to lead their written output and grow the “Culture” section of their newsletter. In 2025, Sifted coined the term “the substackification of VC”—referring to the trend of venture capitalists becoming content creators, building personal brands through long-form writing.

On the other hand, you have independent journalists who left traditional media to cover the VC world on their own terms. Eric Newcomer quit Bloomberg in 2020 to start Newcomer, a deeply reported newsletter on startups and venture capital. He now has 100,000+ subscribers and crossed $1 million in revenue back in 2023, all without a newsroom behind him.

So much for the Substack Status Quo.

PS: Would love to hear if you enjoyed this deeper dive format?!

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Like always, thanks for reading!