The Ankler ditches Substack to fly solo
One of the biggest publishers on Substack – The Ankler – has ditched the newsletter-focused tech platform to run on its own in-house tech infrastructure. The Hollywood-based B2B brand, which covers the entertainment industry, has around 150,000 paid subscribers and around $10m per year in annual revenue. Substack takes a 10% share of publisher subscriptions sales, which looks like a good deal for smaller titles but is more expensive for larger ones. The simplicity of Substack, both in terms of front-end functionality and data available at the back end, also starts as a benefit for creators getting started but can hinder titles as they become more sophisticated. The Substack ‘network effect’ helps new titles grow but becomes less important once they have reached critical mass. Ankler chief executive Janice Min and editorial director Richard Rushfield (also co-founders) set out the changes in a letter to subscribers. They explained that Ankler Media has grown from a single email newsletter to a multi-platform operation with 18 full-time staff. It now publishes 15 newsletters, as well as podcasts, …
