One of the critiques of Facebook as a news source has long been that its algorithm tends to circulate stories with provocative headlines, regardless of whether the content is reliable.
Honestly, there are a lot of people out there who do good opinion writing. If anything, the supply exceeds the demand. Ultimately, then, the challenge for news organizations will be less about how to fill the opinion pages, and more about how to sell subscriptions when their best-known writers are constantly tempted to strike out on their own.
A key to understanding Substack’s impact on the news is to recognize that the kind of journalism that tends to thrive there—so far, at least for the most part—is not actually news. It’s commentary and analysis, aimed at the chattering classes.
News is about discovering and distributing timely information to the public at large, and can be slow and costly to produce. Paid newsletters are about consistently appealing to the interests of a loyal, niche audience, which can be accomplished relatively quickly by a single writer drawing on the original reporting of others.