So I Moved My Newsletter Six Months Ago...

First things first: If you’ve forgotten who I am or why you’re here, check out my bio.

When I got the Google Alert for my own name (every journalist has one, ok?) and it said that a piece I’d written for my newsletter was published via Substack, I knew I had to leave. Before that time, I’d known that the tech company has horrible politics, horrible tech, and took a 10 percent cut of all my subscriptions. The thing I’d been telling myself, though, was that I was just using it as a tool, and because I never referred to my own newsletter as “a Substack,” I was actually in charge of my publication, my brand, and my business.

It became very clear, though, that this was no longer the case: Substack the brand was swallowing up every newsletter in its system, and I didn’t want my readers to be its users. Open rates were plummeting, deliverability was poor, and new subscribers were probably not real, just bloating the numbers. I wanted to control the look and feel of my own publication in advance of launching a new project. And so I had to leave.

But I was afraid to do so: Would I lose all my money? All my work? I had also spent the last few years working on two books in rapid succession, so migrating my newsletter was low on my to-do list.

On a whim one day, I emailed Francis Zierer, the editor of Creator Spotlight—a podcast I’d gone on earlier in 2025—who works for Beehiiv, and I asked if they might be willing to give me a big tech assist. They were: Last June, a very nice guy imminently expecting the birth of a child spent hours on Google Meet with me over the course of weeks to do the migration, segmented my list for me into the people who were most engaged, and helped me through the whole thing. I’ve always been very tech-literate, or so I wanted to believe, but it was daunting when my livelihood was on the line. Their tech support was invaluable.

I also decided on Beehiiv as my platform rather than Ghost because of that support: I work alone—the editor, the writer, the customer support representative, the strategist, the creative director—and anywhere I can access help with things I can keep out of my control, I’m happy to pay for it. (This is also why I’m 100 percent in on traditional publishing.) Here, I pay $250 per month, a transparent cost of business expense, rather than pay Substack 10 percent of each subscription. The tech support has been fabulous and responsive in an ongoing way.

Many folks in the last few months have made high-profile moves from Substack to Patreon, but I think Patreon is even worse in terms of locking users into their system. I want to be a publisher; I want to own my work and the name it has in the world. I’m much happier now because I made this move. I’m more confident.

The Food Essay 7 p.m. EST sessions begin in March. It will be five weeks of close reading, discussion, and considering how to approach different types of essays in our work. I’ve added Newsletter Workshop 2.0 and The Self-Edit Workshop sessions in February, and you can bundle them. One-on-one editorial consulting is available, as well.

While the tech end from my side has been pretty seamless, it hasn’t been seamless for many readers: I apologize. I never wanted the platform I use for my newsletter to be your problem or concern, and so I just started to publish last July without an explanation. Today, you’re getting your explanation, and it’s a much better one that I would’ve given you back then because I’m far more comfortable with the system.

As a reader…

Your subscription is to my newsletter, not Beehiiv. You can login here, whether free or a member, and manage your account. If you do not receive the code, you can reply to this email and I will send you a hard reset link. I recommend creating a password for a more seamless experience after your first login. If you’d ever like to change your email, I can do that for you—just let me know. I am your point of contact.
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The financial aspect is managed through Stripe, a payment processor. This is the same payment processor Substack and many businesses use. They store your data, and they will send automated emails to remind you about upcoming renewals and send your receipts. A reminder that if you work in media, publishing, bookstores, academia, or the culture industry broadly, your subscription is tax deductible.
All the important member links and codes are on this page, called “Members Only” on the homepage. Here you’ll find discounts, travel map links, my “Writer Resource” sheet, and more. There is also a “Sections” page that makes the archives navigable.
When you upgrade, you’ll automatically get a Discord invitation. If you’d like to become a member, please login and do so here. Your subscription not only funds my work, but it is paying contributors to my soon-to-launch TOMATO TOMATO magazine. The digital edition in late March will be free to read, but only members will receive a discount when the print annual goes on sale later this year (and what’s in print will only be published in print!).
Do you have any questions? If so, please comment here or drop me a line.

Comment

I’m far more into the data now, because every time I schedule a post, I look at the number of subscribers and members. This is positive and has allowed me to better separate numbers from my self-worth: It’s just data!
Because of how Beehiiv and Stripe work together, I can also see patterns in membership better. When I first moved over, I hadn’t set Stripe to send renewal reminders, and that caused a lot of havoc (I’d been accustomed to Substack sending those, because it really lets you off the hook for a lot of things). I lost about 80 members before I turned them on in November. Retention has been better now that they are: In the last 3 months, I’ve only lost an additional 30 members to failed payments. Many folks have updated their info and gotten back into the club: Thank you!
Most of my membership loss has been due to failed payments, not cancellations. Again, this is where getting into the data is useful.
Membership creation has slowed. This could be because of the different system, which is why I’m explaining this to you now, or it could be because of the general economic conditions of life, or it could be because people are sick of me—whichever. I’ll keep doing my work!
My open rate has leapt from 45 to 70 percent. Now that I’m sending my newsletter to the folks who are most engaged rather than bloat and bots, I’m really reaching my audience. Plus, better deliverability.
Engagement, in terms of likes and comments, is way down. This is because Substack, with its app ecosystem and one login, makes engagement pretty cheap. I’ve never measured my work in these, so it’s not a big deal. I am receiving more email replies. In my (professional) opinion, engagement is a social media metric, not a publishing metric: It should be understood as such. You wouldn’t think someone’s piece in a magazine less worthwhile because it didn’t have lots of “hearts” on it; the terms and experience are different.
In the last six months, I’ve only added about 1,000 new subscribers. This is organic growth, and organic growth is higher quality and stickier, and I’m glad that I’m being forced to think a bit harder about how and where to grow my audience rather than put all my eggs in one basket. I’d gotten accustomed to 10,000 new subscribers per year on Substack, and that’s just… not realistic!
It is a risk to leave the recognizable brand to try to build your own. But I have to believe it will be worth it, and I’m in great company with fellow journalists publishing newsletters like Frankie de la Cretaz’s Out of Your League and Amy Odell’s Back Row.