Ad-free platform Substack isn’t ruling out ads after all

Despite previously stating it’s an ad-free zone, Substack — like many other platforms before it — is no longer ruling out advertising.

“For us, advertising is an interesting business,” Hamish McKenzie, Substack’s co-founder and chief writing officer, told Digiday. “Maybe some way off in the distant future.”

Call it a reality check — a realization that growing a platform is an expensive business, even one that takes a 10% cut of the money subscribers pay their favorite writers. There’s only so much growth that can come from reader revenue. Whereas ads, when done right, promise scale, margins and the kind of financial upside that’s hard to ignore for long.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.