180 Comments

Y’all talking about media empires over there, and I’m just chugging along telling 60 subscribers about coffee.

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The name of your publication — "Matt Likes Coffee" — really resonates deeply with me. Keep on chugging!

(61 subscribers now.)

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Matts and coffee, a millennial match made in heaven.

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Matt, are you from Australia? I'm a huge coffee fan too.

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Unfortunately no, too many spiders down under.

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Okay, @Josh beat me.

I'm subscriber #62.

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Hey: I LOVE coffee. Actually I used to. Now it’s Irish breakfast tea 🍵

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Matt did you just created a publication about coffee but never wrote anything about the best cake to eat with you coffee 😋 I need to read that 😀btw I put some of your posts in my tbr list !

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I only write what I know, and that’s extremely little about cake. I’ll take a trip down the rabbit hole for you though!

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Biscotti is pretty good with coffee. Double chocolate varieties.

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Never tried but I’ll check, not something easy to find in France except in Starbucks

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Coffee you say? Make that 61 subscribers

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My bucket overflows! Getting that media empire one subscriber at a time.

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Ha! I think we both hit publish at the same time.

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Hey a good joke is a good joke:)

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Hey don't diss it, that's 30 more subscribers than I have! Keep going Matthew! We'll get there mate.

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I’m averaging 30 per year, media empire here I come! 🥲

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I noticed your comment on having only 60 subscribers is from about 5 months ago, so I'm just curious as to how many more subscribers you have gained since then? I'm about a year in with only 11 subscribers. Either everyone hates cats or I just suck.

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I think I’m at like 65 now. It comes in spurts.

Substack’s total user base is much lower than other social media networks, and the pitch to subscribers is a lot harder than something like Instagram. Keep doing what you’re doing if you love it.

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Consider me caffeinated (and subscribed)!

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I love coffee too - subscribed!

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That’s the beginning keep up !

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You’re welcome Eduardo ! we need to support & value each others, we’re in this together ! I’m really happy that you’re sharing information about privacy, I’m a bit tired of the « why do I need privacy as I’ve nothing to hide » 😜

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This is great, since the pandemic lockdown we told people to just grab a glass square and said “look here is your money now and this is where food comes from ok? So trust the glass thingy”

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30 is better than 20 is better than 10.

I hear it goes drip-drip-drip-hockey-stick.

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Couldn’t agree more !

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Why "empire"? I thought substack was for the indie bloggers not media empires. I'll be worriedly watching out.

PS. Recently left Medium after 7 years. I really hope I don't have to move again soon.

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Currently considering how to grow Medium and grow Substack at the same time. Have a feeling it's possible. Maybe necessary. [Watch this space]

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Crosspost on both platforms. Try and funnel your Medium traffic here.

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The same content, though? Seems unwise.

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I wouldn’t make it a habit, but it’s your work; there’s nothing wrong with writing once/posting twice.

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yeah good point lol. we got a 1.5 man local journalism empire over here. 18 months in its working pretty well. https://www.thejournal425.com

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You are not alone - l wage a war along with millions of others in BRITAIN against the mass media producing daily Psyops and lying to the people - working for a TOTALITARIAN STATE because that is what BRITAIN is now ..

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Cool idea for 2023 is instead to not gear everything towards media empires.

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right lol. tryin to solve news deserts not grow new ones

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I come to Substack because it collects and amplifies rebellious, singular voices.

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Hear hear .. l DO NOT come to Substack to encourage the Psyops and mass propaganda the BBC pumps out! Dear God 🙏🏻 choose “your media carefully” ..

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What if we don’t have a “media empire” but would kill for a new layout?

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Seek, and you shall find. Eventually.

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Best comment 😂

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I think it would really shake up the world of publishing/social media/tech in general if Substack didn't only promote already existing "empires". There's a lot of authors who only have a small province, but one that's richly planted. Substack would still get their portion of paid subscriptions.

Unless of course Substack has special deals with the kings and queens of the giant realms where they get more of a percentage. Then it makes perfect sense to only promote the bigs.

But what a concept, huh? The tech world would look on in wonder and astonishment!

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Bari Weiss is not a journalist, but a right-wing mouthpiece. BAD EXAMPLE!

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The only remotely right-wing thing about her is her Zionism. Mostly she’s milquetoast moderate centrist nonsense. But someone told you to hate her because she espoused one of the naughty no-no opinions, and you obliged like the human cattle you are.

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harsh but fair lol

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right is one half of our political system it’s fine to have right wing representation. it’s exclusion and silos that suck. and she is a journalist. unless you aren’t counting NYT anymore. and i’m not a fan of her at all. she says some really dumb shxt like when she called Gabbard a toadie and then when pressed to back her claim, had to ask her assistant what toadie meant. i just think we all benefit from the exchange of views and it would be a mistake to act like only right or left has some sort of monopoly on the high ground.

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Interesting. Don’t bail on the little guys.

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the three biggest stories i wrote this year distribution wise simply told people stuff like “what’s going in at the new development over there” and “what’s up with all the car thefts and why won’t the cops help us get our cars back?” and “new costco opens tomorrow”. ppl just wanna know what the f is goin on and there is a complete vacuum.

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Local ad-backed journalism was the first to die in the social media purge. Keep doing your thing.

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It seems like they are building a “destination” website. The model that has failed almost everyone else and brought about Substack. I can envision small newsletters banding together to create an “empire” but then the money issue gets icky. I reckon my empire will remain small. 🤓

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I don’t even think of this as a newsletter. i was tryin to find a platform for community journalism and figured this could approximate a paper most efficiently for a guy tryin to bootstrap. and i think that’s what they are getting at here (despite the very off brand term empire)- they’re saying we can be a newspaper too.

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I write humor and fiction. The stuff that doesn't make money. 🤣 So I have no desire to be a newspaper or a media empire. I'd rather have a donut. 😉

God bless those who do real journalism. It is just not my passion. 🙂

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Small is good. Small and super-f***ing-strong is even better.

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I am so relieved she is still associated with Substack as I was alarmed when I tried to visit an old Substack link and found it redirected to the Free Press (https://www.thefp.com/p/how-to-be-a-pioneer). New site looks awesome!

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I’m building a contrarian investor media empire. Yes, really

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Please show some love to fiction writers and create a better fiction publishing and reading experience. You could be competing with Kindle/Vella/Wattpad but right now the UX isn’t there.

More details on problems here-- https://open.substack.com/pub/charlottedune/p/do-we-really-want-email-novels?r=8gb2e&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

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Matthew, how can I become part? I love coffee. I have fewer subscribers, that isn't it, I'm trying to start a podcast. Where you talk into a mic? I figure use my wife's cell phone. I have a radical idea to take people back to prepper/survivalist times.. I've been living it for over twenty years. lol I used to live in those big tubes in Penn. Station in NYC. Now that was fun and funny.

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Glad to see you are carving out space for bigger publications who may be tempted to jump ship to an inferior (but more customizable) platform.

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