Videos in Chat, app updates, and Substackers at events and in the news

Bulletin #5: News, education, and opportunities for publishers

Welcome to another edition of the Substack Bulletin, where publishers get a roundup of the latest news, resources, and community-building opportunities, all in one place.

Please leave any feedback or ideas in the comments—we’re listening and curious to know how we can make these posts as valuable to you as possible.

News

• Video in Chat. Publishers can now share videos to their publication’s Chat space. Sharing videos with subscribers is an easy way to speak directly with subscribers, and can be paywalled. Learn more about Substack Chat

• Updates to the Substack app. We recently rolled out updates to both the iOS and Android Substack apps, including the ability to turn video autoplay on or off in settings. In the latest iOS version of the app, we’ve added a number of features: swipe left to hide a note, with the option to see similar content less often; watch video in Chat; YouTube and Spotify embeds in Notes; and About page videos. In the latest version of our Android app, we’ve added chat and publication search and a paywalled video treatment. Download the Substack app

• Chat link previews. To help more subscribers discover your publication, we added link previews to Chat spaces and posts that are shared outside of Substack. Here’s an example from a post shared in Slack:

  

Resources

• Inspiration: A roundup of how writers and creators like Nadia Bolz-Weber, Haley Nahman, and Terrell Johnson take paid time off from their Substacks

• A new launch guide: A new guide for TikTokers interested in coming to Substack and bringing their followers with them

• Chatbot question of the week: How do I tell someone to buy a gift subscription?
  
  It’s easy for anyone to give a subscription to your publication. You can direct gift givers to your specific Substack URL followed by “/gift” (for example, if your publication is “Dogs,” the URL would be dogs.substack.com/gift). There, buyers can enter details and choose to send the gift immediately or schedule it for a later date.

Community

Tech, business and finance publishers gather in lower Manhattan, and fashion publishers in Los Angeles

• Meetups: Thank you to

  Tuğba Avci
  ,
  Neil Scott
  ,
  Lindsay Johnstone
  , and
  Evelyn Skye
  for hosting in May, from Glasgow to the Bay Area. If you’d like to get together with other writers and creators in your city, consider hosting a meetup.

• Around town: Finance, tech, and business writers on Substack gathered at Fraunces Tavern, New York City’s oldest bar.

  The Green Spoon
  and
  Clare de Boer
  hosted an intimate dinner party for Substack food writers.
  Megan Alida Strachan
  ,
  Molly Sims
  , and
  Marlien Rentmeester
  co-hosted an evening for Substack fashion writers in Los Angeles. Hunter Harris threw a party for her founding members and paying subscribers in New York with fellow Substack writers
  Emilia Petrarca
  ,
  Tembe Denton-Hurst
  ,
  Liana Satenstein
  ,
  Hilton Dresden
  ,
  Akosua T. Adasi
  , and more. 

• In the press:

  Suleika Jaouad
  was profiled in The Atlantic.
  Viv Chen
  ,
  Clare Vivier
  ,
  Jane Herman
  , and
  Megan Alida Strachan
  were all mentioned in an article about fashion Substackers in Vogue Business.
  Azeem Azhar
  was quoted in a piece from the BBC about the rise of subscription-based social media.
  Kyle Chayka
  interviewed
  laura reilly
  and Andrea Hernandez of
  Snaxshot
  for The New Yorker about the new generation of online culture curators. Inc. looked at how publishers like
  Dianna Cohen
  ,
  Tracy Dennis-Tiwary
  , and
  Jing
  Gao are building a community with their customers on Substack. LitHub wrote about
  Lynn Steger Strong
  and
  Alice Elliott Dark
  ’s analysis of HBO’s Girls on their Substacks. Local-news pioneer
  The Mill
  was praised in the Press Gazette.
  Arielle Charnas
  launched a new Substack, and The Cut ran the news. The Evening Standard covered
  Matt Goodwin
  ’s Substack. The Guardian recommended
  George Saunders
  and
  Brandon
  ’s Substacks. Business of Home posed the question “Is design Substack having a moment?”
  Leandra Medine Cohen
  of The Cereal Aisle and
  Sarah Shapiro
  of Sarah’s Retail Diary were quoted in the New York Post in a story about the comeback of the jelly sandal. Digiday interviewed
  Caroline Chambers
  and
  Hunter Harris
  about how they’ve monetized their Substacks.
  Emily
  Sundberg was mentioned in the New York Times:

• Milestones: Netflix released a new documentary about

  Dan Rather
  . Ken Burns presented
  Heather Cox Richardson
  with the Authors Guild’s Baldacci Award for Literary Activism.
  Andrea Nguyen
  ’s book Ever-Green Vietnamese was nominated for a James Beard Award, and
  Zibby Owens
  ’s Substack was a Webby Award honoree for best Personal Blog/Website.
  Bob Dunning
  , who had a column at The Davis Enterprise for 55 years but was laid off without explanation, successfully launched a Substack. Watch Bob’s speech at his launch party below.

Celebrating a milestone or press feature? Let us know in the comments.