In an effort to meet readers on their preferred platforms, New York Magazine is now publishing one of its daily newsletters on Substack.
As first reported in Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me newsletter, the magazine is sending out each day’s edition of Dinner Party — Choire Sicha’s evening roundup of “politics, tech, media, and corporate clownery” news — on Substack as well as to its regular email list.
“We know there are readers on Substack who are aware of or would love New York Magazine, and we want to be a part of their daily and weekly reading habits,” Joyce Tang, New York’s editorial director for audience, said in an email. “Dinner Party is a great newsletter to start with, since it is voice-y and writer-driven, which seems to be a natural fit for Substack audiences.”
Dinner Party, which is free to read, launched in 2022.
“We are always looking for new ways of finding and engaging potential readers, and Substack seemed like fertile ground for us,” Tang said. “This has become more important since reaching new audiences has become trickier as audiences on traditional social platforms have waned and search algorithms have undergone drastic changes.”
Combined, Substack newsletters have more than 50 million active subscriptions, more than five million of which are paid.
New York Magazine is Vox Media’s first publication to launch on Substack in this way, though other outlets have also been experimenting on the platform. Beauty magazine Allure, which is owned by Condé Nast, started publishing some of its stories and columns on Substack in January. The Albany Times Union turned its free politics newsletter, Capitol Confidential, into a paid Substack for readers who want insider-y updates from the state capital. In 2021, student newspapers in the California State University system banded together to launch a Substack-based wire service to share stories with each other for republishing.
Tang declined to share numbers about Dinner Party’s audience, but said New York is interested in co-publishing other newsletters — and possibly in developing exclusive content for Substack down the line.
“We’re looking to build an audience on Substack and, as part of our experimenting, we’ll want to better understand what resonates with them, as we do on all platforms where we maintain a presence,” Tang said. “Ultimately, we know we can’t drive people to our own platforms if we’re not providing value to audiences where they’re already at.”
