I really look forward to getting your culture/recommendation posts, which suggests that I may be representative of some part of your demographic. I feel like I might not be alone in having found myself, after a period of enthusiasm, subscribed to many more substacks than I have time to read regularly, and that that has made me more reluctant to add new ones, paid or otherwise. So I guess the good news is that I would follow you wherever at this point, but the bad news might be that other folks like me are getting harder to convert because of feed saturation. Just my two cents. Love your newsletter, glad it’s been successful for you.
You already have my money, but hell yea to more culture round-ups (very likely in the minority of my demographic, but you gotta point a gun at my head to get me to listen to a “podcast”)
You should absolutely paywall the "what type of guy" posts. Years of free blogging journalism has conditioned us to expect this type of high quality analysis quickly and for free. But I'd argue they shouldn't be both fast and free. It's not sustainable. All those old platforms either failed or started charging.
Keep it all going, Max, this is my favorite and most indispensable newsletter on Substack. Very excited for the shows with John Ganz, too. Gang’s all here!
Thanks for posting this. One point of contextualization you might benefit from is that I’ve read that paid subs are down across most of Substack. And for my newsletter specifically, free subscriber growth has been great the past 12 months, but I went through a more exaggerated version of your growth arc on the paid subs side. My growth rate in paid subs was double from roughly October last year through March this year, but since March, paid subs have actually declined (negative churn) even though free subscriber growth has continued at a high rate. My conversion rate, accordingly, went from above industry average (~15%) to now around 8% in the span of 5 months or so. To put it differently, your declining growth may reflect “market conditions,” or a system-level problem, not any shortcoming on your end. Regardless, you’re always welcome on my pod(s)!
Yes, it seems like it's a widespread problem, which (to me) points to both an algorithmic change on Substack's part *and* something like "newsletter fatigue" (or prevailing economic headwinds).
For what it's worth I watched more of your movie recommendations than any other newsletter and platform, and bought your book recommendations about as often as Ted Gioia's.
I'm a paid subscriber to both your newsletter and Unpopular Front. I wonder if there isn't a way to induce more crossovers via special events available to people with both subscriptions?
my feedback - might be worth asking anyone else in your cohort if they had that same hard breakover in or around Feb. Not much you could do if it is a Substack algorthim quashing lefty/tech skeptic blogs, but if you're thinking of decamping (please do, the C suite are open Nazis) it's good to know there's a money tap and their hand is on it and they're not afraid to shut it for any or no reason.
As a member of the same Micro Generation (I'm guessing) do people come in from substack? I can't figure out how this shitty website is supposed to work. The worst part of a week is when they change whatever settings I'd established and I get an email full of random people's 'stacks' or whatever. I'm not on any socials so maybe I lack tech fluency/brain damage to navigate this slop but I can't imagine finding rewarding information in it. I found you the same way I found any of the newsletters I subscribe to - links from other substackers I respect, or friends texting links to "this crazy article about the AI Thrill Kill Kult."
This might be some old man wrongly assuming everyone loves his preferred brand of medicinal onion soda but I really believe all this algorithmic sharing and stuff is top to bottom bullshit. You've got the numbers though, if people with taste getting curated introductions are a small portion of filter feeders who eat whatever squeezes out of substacks pipe today, fair enough.
Have you thought about a subscriber discord? I feel like the folks, like me, weird enough to be into your content recommendations would enjoy talking to eachother.
Max, your posts remain one of the few “must-read” items in an increasingly crowded Substack field. Speaking for myself only, there has been a saturation effect this year in which I only have so much free time to divide between you, Paul Krugman, Matt Stoller, Ted Gioa, Will Leitch, and a few others who post extremely high quality but very dense stuff multiple times a week.
Congratulations on another year! I found the newsletter about 2 years ago through other newsletters, not substance algos. The book and movie recommendations are worth the price alone, for me. Also, I feel like you were first to connect the dots on the Zizian cult murders. That was so weird that I wouldn't have believed it if a lesser journalist wrote about it. Looking forward to another year of good writing.
I greatly appreciate the various book recommendations that qualify as Extremely My Shit like halogen core spy or weirdo medieval mysticism or sci-fi mysteries or other random genre mashups you write about. The only problem is 0 lack of time to actually read them, but I'm glad someone is out there cultivating these and sharing why they think it's good.
Hey everyone 👋 I’m actively looking for writers and readers in the same space — people digging into AI, privacy, digital freedom, and the future of human awareness. We need to lift each other up, share each other’s work, and build a real network of voices that get it.
I really look forward to getting your culture/recommendation posts, which suggests that I may be representative of some part of your demographic. I feel like I might not be alone in having found myself, after a period of enthusiasm, subscribed to many more substacks than I have time to read regularly, and that that has made me more reluctant to add new ones, paid or otherwise. So I guess the good news is that I would follow you wherever at this point, but the bad news might be that other folks like me are getting harder to convert because of feed saturation. Just my two cents. Love your newsletter, glad it’s been successful for you.
This sounds exactly right to me.
You already have my money, but hell yea to more culture round-ups (very likely in the minority of my demographic, but you gotta point a gun at my head to get me to listen to a “podcast”)
You should absolutely paywall the "what type of guy" posts. Years of free blogging journalism has conditioned us to expect this type of high quality analysis quickly and for free. But I'd argue they shouldn't be both fast and free. It's not sustainable. All those old platforms either failed or started charging.
Keep it all going, Max, this is my favorite and most indispensable newsletter on Substack. Very excited for the shows with John Ganz, too. Gang’s all here!
Thanks for posting this. One point of contextualization you might benefit from is that I’ve read that paid subs are down across most of Substack. And for my newsletter specifically, free subscriber growth has been great the past 12 months, but I went through a more exaggerated version of your growth arc on the paid subs side. My growth rate in paid subs was double from roughly October last year through March this year, but since March, paid subs have actually declined (negative churn) even though free subscriber growth has continued at a high rate. My conversion rate, accordingly, went from above industry average (~15%) to now around 8% in the span of 5 months or so. To put it differently, your declining growth may reflect “market conditions,” or a system-level problem, not any shortcoming on your end. Regardless, you’re always welcome on my pod(s)!
Yes, it seems like it's a widespread problem, which (to me) points to both an algorithmic change on Substack's part *and* something like "newsletter fatigue" (or prevailing economic headwinds).
For what it's worth I watched more of your movie recommendations than any other newsletter and platform, and bought your book recommendations about as often as Ted Gioia's.
I'm a paid subscriber to both your newsletter and Unpopular Front. I wonder if there isn't a way to induce more crossovers via special events available to people with both subscriptions?
yay!
I subscribed for the Sentra post!
my feedback - might be worth asking anyone else in your cohort if they had that same hard breakover in or around Feb. Not much you could do if it is a Substack algorthim quashing lefty/tech skeptic blogs, but if you're thinking of decamping (please do, the C suite are open Nazis) it's good to know there's a money tap and their hand is on it and they're not afraid to shut it for any or no reason.
As a member of the same Micro Generation (I'm guessing) do people come in from substack? I can't figure out how this shitty website is supposed to work. The worst part of a week is when they change whatever settings I'd established and I get an email full of random people's 'stacks' or whatever. I'm not on any socials so maybe I lack tech fluency/brain damage to navigate this slop but I can't imagine finding rewarding information in it. I found you the same way I found any of the newsletters I subscribe to - links from other substackers I respect, or friends texting links to "this crazy article about the AI Thrill Kill Kult."
This might be some old man wrongly assuming everyone loves his preferred brand of medicinal onion soda but I really believe all this algorithmic sharing and stuff is top to bottom bullshit. You've got the numbers though, if people with taste getting curated introductions are a small portion of filter feeders who eat whatever squeezes out of substacks pipe today, fair enough.
Have you thought about a subscriber discord? I feel like the folks, like me, weird enough to be into your content recommendations would enjoy talking to eachother.
Max, your posts remain one of the few “must-read” items in an increasingly crowded Substack field. Speaking for myself only, there has been a saturation effect this year in which I only have so much free time to divide between you, Paul Krugman, Matt Stoller, Ted Gioa, Will Leitch, and a few others who post extremely high quality but very dense stuff multiple times a week.
Congratulations on another year! I found the newsletter about 2 years ago through other newsletters, not substance algos. The book and movie recommendations are worth the price alone, for me. Also, I feel like you were first to connect the dots on the Zizian cult murders. That was so weird that I wouldn't have believed it if a lesser journalist wrote about it. Looking forward to another year of good writing.
Substack* algos. Damn you autocorrect
You can never listen to "Takedown" too much IMO.
I greatly appreciate the various book recommendations that qualify as Extremely My Shit like halogen core spy or weirdo medieval mysticism or sci-fi mysteries or other random genre mashups you write about. The only problem is 0 lack of time to actually read them, but I'm glad someone is out there cultivating these and sharing why they think it's good.
Hey everyone 👋 I’m actively looking for writers and readers in the same space — people digging into AI, privacy, digital freedom, and the future of human awareness. We need to lift each other up, share each other’s work, and build a real network of voices that get it.
This isn’t just content — it’s a mission to wake people up to what’s already happening. Let’s recommend, re-stack, and grow together so our message actually reaches the world. Join us → https://open.substack.com/pub/aiunpackedpod/p/eu-entryexit-system-ees-biometric?r=tltoj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true”
I enjoy your work and would happily pay for it were it not on Substack.
Your failure to address this issue, as a web media expert, is bizarre.