Substack now lets writers create a ‘network’ of recommended publications for their subscribers

Substack is updating its peer-to-peer recommendation system announced Today. With this new update, Substack is helping writers expand their reach and potentially assist other writers in gaining more subscribers and followers, as the company now offers writers a selection of publications to subscribe to for their readers. Allowing list creation and sharing.

In a blog post, the company says the change represents a step forward and away from an era of social media that is based on “centralized search and control.” By allowing writers to recommend a network of other writers to their subscribers, Substack is promoting a peer-to-peer recommendation system that will in turn help writers grow their audience. Most social media networks currently leverage algorithms for their recommendation systems, but Substack instead focuses on allowing writers to curate their own network of recommendations.

Now, when a reader subscribes to someone’s publication on Substack, they’ll see the option to join a package of people to follow based on the author’s recommendations. In the past, this screen showed a maximum of three publications recommended by the author. Now, readers will see a list of as many publications and profiles as the author wants to recommend.

Readers can select or deselect people or publications they are interested in, after which, their feed will begin to include notes and posts from people on that network.

Image Credit: substack

Substack says the update will help writers build goodwill with other writers by helping them reach more people, while also helping readers build a worldview. The platform will show writers how many subscriptions and followers they’ve driven for people in their network.

The company says recommendations on the platform drive 50% of all new subscriptions and 25% of new paid subscriptions. Substack notes that early data shows that its approach to recommendations increases both the number of subscriptions and followers that publications and users get.

Substack also announced today that more than three million readers subscribe to paid newsletters on its platform, up from two million a year ago.

As Substack looks to develop its recommendation system, the company saw a controversial start to the year as it revealed it would not ban Nazi newsletters on its platform. Substack CEO Hamish McKenzie however said While Substack bans posts that “incite violence,” it will stick to a “decentralized approach to content moderation.” As a result of this stance, notable writers like casey newton And Ryan Broderick Decided to leave Substack.