Video Notes, improved search, Spotify integration, and more
Bulletin #3: News, education, and opportunities for publishers
Welcome to the Substack Bulletin, where publishers get a roundup of the latest news, resources, and community-building opportunities, all in one place.
In recent weeks, we’ve shipped a lot of new software, including major advancements for podcasters, significant Notes and search improvements, further theme and layout customization, and a handful of long-standing writer feature requests.
Please leave us any feedback or ideas in the comments—we’re listening and curious to see how we can make these posts as valuable to you as possible.
News
Video and external embeds for Notes. You can post videos directly to Notes in the Substack app and on the web. We’ve also made it possible for anyone to embed notes on external web pages. Learn more
Post search just got better. Our improvements on the web make it easier and faster to find any post on your publication.
Spotify for paid podcasts. Substack podcasters can now sync and distribute all their free and paid episodes to Spotify. Learn more
Custom “teaser” posts. Writers with Substack Boost turned on have access to our new teaser posts, which offer your free subscribers the ability to unlock a single paid post from your publication to see what they may be missing out on. Writers can now choose which posts they want to include as a teaser. Learn more
Cleaner shareable images. We heard a lot of feedback from writers on these, and they will now hide the preview text by default to provide a cleaner, more focused graphic.
Financial charts integration: In cooperation with our friends at
, we’ve added the option to add a customizable financial chat to your posts. This option appears in the More menu in the Substack Editor. You can select a security and add desired annotations, including text and emoji.
Resources
Voiceover inspiration: Read our new post on how writers and creators are using read-alouds and voiceovers.
Podcasting business models: A deep dive on the podcasting business models emerging on Substack.
Importing a podcast: If you’re interested in bringing an existing podcast over to Substack, see our new step-by-step guide.
Chatbot question of the week: How do I paywall a read-aloud of my article?
If you add a paywall to a post that contains a voiceover, it will make the voiceover audio a feature the reader has to pay to unlock. No matter where you place the paywall within the text of your post, the audio will be locked. To paywall a voiceover in your Substack post, follow these steps:
After adding a voiceover audio file to your post, click on “More” in the draft editor toolbar and select “Paywall.”
Position the paywall in your text draft where you want the paywalled content to begin.
Click “Continue,” and on the Publish settings page, make sure to select “This post is for Paid subscribers only” and that “Send free preview” is selected (unchecking this will remove the paywall).
For a comprehensive, visual step-by-step on how to add a voiceover to a post, visit this help center article.
Community
Meetups: Coming up,
and are hosting in Los Angeles, in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Hudson, and in Seattle. Next month and are hosting in Glasgow, and in Berlin. Don’t see a gathering in your city or category? Apply to host your own meetup with others writers. Or host one for subscribers, like just did with subscribers in New York.In the press: Business Insider wrote about how creators are moving to Substack to foster community and make money.
spoke about trans rights on The New Yorker Radio Hour. wrote a piece about AI in the New York Times and one of ’s Substack posts was picked up by Tucker Carlson. Semafor wrote about News launching its new show “Mehdi Unfiltered.” was on the Content People podcast.Milestones:
was named the 2024 Lifetime Achievement James Beard Award honoree. became the #1 publication on Substack by revenue, with more than 630,000 total subscribers and 25 full-time staffers. and ’s Embedded turned three (and celebrated with a redesign), celebrated one year on Substack, and ’s Beyond turned two. delivered the A Room of One’s Own Annual Lecture at Cambridge University. hit 10,000 subscribers. won a 2023 APSE award. ’s Substack was named a Webby honoree. book Women of the Post was named a 2024 Gotham Book Prize finalist.
Celebrating a milestone or press feature? Let us know in the comments.
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