Newsletter start-up Substack continues to be a player in the comics space, and they’ve just announced a new dedicated app that will make it easier to find newsletters in the voluminous inboxes so prevalent in these times. According to the company blog:
For readers, the app brings all your Substack subscriptions together in one venue, giving you a beautiful, focused place to read your favorite writers. Discovery features make it easier to find and fall in love with new writers, and the app brings text, audio, video, and community seamlessly together for the best reading experience on the internet.
For writers, your connection to your readers gets upgraded when they choose to install the app. As ever, you retain total ownership of your content and mailing list, but now you also get instant, reliable delivery (no more Promotions folder!), multiple media formats in a single package, and another way for readers to connect with you and your work.
If you’re like me and get about 1000 emails a day but don’t want to miss Grant Morrison’s latest dish on their DC days, this app will be a handy place to find all your comics subscriptions. (Actual comics delivered via Substack were previously readable in the Panels app – it’s unclear how this will affect that integration.) The dedicated app also offers creator benefits, including greater discoverability, and will allow for more kinds of media.
If you’re keeping score at home, it’s worth noting that James Tynion’s Empire of the Tiny Onion newsletter is prominently featured in the video. Tynion’s newsletter is the #2 paid comics newsletter, after the Three Worlds/Three Moons newsletter, as seen here. This all follows, last month’s big Comics Day on Substack launch,
Newsletters of all kinds seem to be sticking around – even as more companies are getting into the format – and with a standalone app, they’re moving out of your inbox entirely.
