How Substack is Rewriting the Rules of PR

Journalism has been pulling apart for at least the past five years. Star reporters once synonymous with The New York Times or The Atlantic left these legacy media institutions and turned to personal platforms including Substack.

What this means for communications professionals is a fundamental reset. Some of the most influential journalists covering your industry, your clients, or your issues no longer work for an outlet in any media database. They publish independently, on their own schedule, to audiences that chose them specifically, and trust them deeply. Terry Moran, Jim Acosta, Joy Reid — the list is growing.

More journalists will leave institutional outlets, and more audiences will follow them. The communications professionals who understand this landscape — who’s publishing, how the platform works, how it’s changing, and how to build relationships within it — will have a meaningful edge over those who don’t.

The Platform You’re Pitching Into

The audience relationship on Substack is categorically different from anything else in your media mix. Every subscriber actively opted in. A third of U.S. adults read digital newsletters, and Substack boasts more than 5 million paid subscriptions.  These audiences pay attention, trust the writers they follow, and act on what they read. 

Without editors or institutional review, Substack writers publish exactly what they want. That cuts both ways. A writer covering your industry can publish a damaging, detailed, well-sourced piece with no editorial delay and no chance for you to respond before it goes out. It also means writers have more freedom to cover niche stories, build genuine expertise, and collaborate in ways legacy outlets would never allow.

The platform is also no longer just text. Substack has rolled out video tools, live sessions, audio posts, and Notes — a short-form feed that functions like Twitter. The most successful writers aren’t just writing newsletters anymore. A writer with 80,000 email subscribers may also have a meaningful video presence and a Notes following that operates on its own. Subscriber count alone doesn’t tell you how influential a writer is.

What Communicators Should Do

Rebuild your media list for this channel. Most media databases are slow to index Substack publications and slower still to capture their actual influence. A writer with 120,000 subscribers covering regulatory affairs in your industry may be more consequential to your work than a staff reporter at a publication with declining readership. Start with the beats and issues that matter most to your organization and work outward. Factor in paywalls too. If a writer’s best work is behind a paywall, that changes how you pitch them. 

Ditch the template. Just like traditional pitching, the best results come from real connection: read the work, understand the argument they’re making, and figure out where your expertise or access creates value for them. A tip, a source, a data point they don’t have — these open doors. 

Understand the pre-publication window is shrinking. Because there’s often no editorial layer between a Substack writer and their audience, the traditional “call before you publish” window may be much shorter (or nonexistent). Writers with large, loyal audiences have less incentive to seek comment than a reporter whose editor will push for balance. This doesn’t happen every time, but it happens enough that your crisis plan needs to account for it. Know which Substack writers cover your space, monitor their Notes feeds for early signals, and build a rapid response protocol that doesn’t assume the usual pre-publication timeline.

Don’t underestimate the Notes feed. A writer’s Notes feed is where early thinking, hot takes, and real-time reactions live — often well before they become a full piece. Communicators who track Notes have a genuine early warning advantage: a writer field-testing a critical angle in Notes is signaling where their next newsletter may go. That’s time you can use to prepare a response, identify a counter-source, or proactively reach out before a narrative hardens.

Consider earned and owned together. Brands are increasingly launching their own Substack publications. The share of Substack newsletters run by brands grew from 4.3% in 2024 to 5.3% in 2025. The brands doing this well — Hinge’s literary series, The RealReal’s The RealGirl — treat the publication as a community asset vs. another corporate blog. For organizations with complex stories to tell and real expertise to share, an owned Substack can build credibility that a press release or blog never could. To do this well requires commitment, authentic voice, and patience for ROI that may take years.

Treat Substack sponsorships like collaborations. Paid integrations with Substack writers are becoming available, but the value comes from the writer’s voice and credibility, which means the integration only works if it genuinely fits. An audience that reads carefully will notice a brand that feels out of place. The most effective sponsorships are less ad placement and more editorial collaboration with agreed parameters.

Understand how probability is reshaping coverage. In February 2026, Substack and Polymarket announced a partnership allowing writers to integrate prediction market data directly into their content. Twenty percent of Substack’s top 250 highest-revenue publications have already begun using it. What that means for communicators: a journalist covering your industry may now be building narratives around what’s likely to happen, not just what has. That means your issues can attract coverage earlier in a news cycle, framed around what’s “likely” rather than what’s confirmed. It’s worth knowing which writers in your space are using this data and how — because a piece built around an 80% likelihood of regulatory action lands differently than a traditional news story. 

Institutional media still plays a crucial role in the communications landscape — but Substack is now a growing staple in how people consume news and information. How communicators influence coverage here is different, and the platform itself keeps evolving. Those who pay attention to those changes and adapt their playbook will keep the reach, relevance, and relationships that matter most when it counts.

Staci McCabe | EVP, Strategic Communications

Staci McCabe is an executive vice president on the communications team at Precision. She supports various corporate and advocacy clients to develop strategic communications campaigns, garner top-tier media coverage, and craft messaging that breaks through. At Precision, she has worked with clients such as Planned Parenthood to help introduce and position its president, a leading financial institution to build and support its corporate reputation, and AIDS United to raise awareness and mobilize people in opposition of a devastating rule change for those living with HIV. Prior to joining Precision, Staci worked at Porter Novelli where she acted as a communications counselor for multiple health care and public affairs clients. She also served as the communications director for Congressman Brad Schneider, directing the communications strategy and acting as the on-the-record spokesperson.