The email newsletter platform, Substack is not a replacement of blogs nor even an erosion of the growing blog community.
What Substack signals is a growth in blogging – and all that can be good with a well written blog.
Yesterday, LexBlog’s head of publishing and long time journalist, Colin O’Keefe blogged that Substack succeeds by emulating old school blogging.
The five characteristics of old school blogging:
- One voice. Substacks are written by a single author. Their appeal isn’t just about the subject covered, but by the way the author writes on the subject.
- Not chasing clicks. Rather focusing on a huge audience (acknowledging subscription revenue is nice), appealing to a small, but highly engaged contingent. This leads to higher-quality writing over clickbait and hot takes.
- Niches lead to reaches. Substacks cover one niche subject and one subject, only.
- Content over everything. No fancy design, no magazine layout and no giant menus. The focus is on text.
- Start quick, easily. Substack beckons, “Hey, you could write here.” Get going going in minutes without multiple stackholders guiding you and turning something simple into a project.
Colin’s spot on as to what, Substack represents. Citizen journalism, in the form of blogging is on the rise – no matter what you call the medium used.
“Substack is just one of a few examples that point to blogging’s return. Things may not always look like a blog or be called a “blog,” but people are blogging.”
In the face of marketers selling ghost written content so that lawyers can unethically mislead the public that they wrote something they did not, real and authentic voices on niches in the law are welcome. No matter the medium.
For law firms who are blogging and thinking of blogging, look at the characteristics of why Substack is successful.
These characteristics gave rise to to many a successful legal blogger.