Inside Substack’s bet on sponsorships

^{Making a living as a creator shouldn’t be some elusive thing. And what’s the best way to learn how creators are making it work? To go behind-the-scenes. These bi-weekly interview issues are like having coffee with your favorite creators. If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about solopreneurship and the creator economy.}

Good morning. Substack built its name on readers paying writers directly. Now it’s adding brand money to the mix, for writers and podcasters alike, without copying the old ad playbook. This week, the person leading that push explains how it works and what it means for creators of every size.

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Substack recently unveiled three new sponsorship formats, each designed to give readers something back to readers. 

With The Unlock, a brand sponsors a paid post so anyone can read it free, and the creator still gets paid. With The Upgrade, a brand gives a publication’s free subscribers a month of paid access, after which they decide whether to keep paying. With The Masthead, a brand works with writers to curate or commission work around a theme, collected in one place like a digital zine. 

Podcasters, who already earn more than $200 million a year on Substack from subscriptions alone, are getting sponsorships too. Substack has begun piloting dynamic ad insertion for podcasts hosted on the platform, with programmatic sponsorships through third-party marketplaces planned for early 2027. Podcasters will have control over whether they participate and the types of sponsors they work with. 

We asked Dan Robbins, Head of Brand Sponsorships, how it all fits together.

Creators have historically done sponsorships on their own, managing the logistics themselves. We’re making it easier to expand revenue in ways that are additive to a subscription foundation.

Podcasts have been on Substack since 2019 and are now a much bigger part of the platform. Hundreds of thousands of creators host podcast RSS feeds here. We want to give the most ambitious podcasters one home for hosting, video, newsletters, monetization and community, with sponsorships as another way to earn alongside their subscriptions.

We’re open to taking what works and improving what doesn’t. Hundreds of people signed up for early access within hours of the announcement.

Technology like this is neutral, in the same way an algorithm is. What matters is what you point it at. If a sponsorship adds to the show, it works. If it gets in the way, it doesn’t. 

Sponsorships let podcasters monetize audiences that haven’t subscribed yet, while also giving podcasters another revenue stream to pursue even more ambitious media projects.

It should add to the relationship between a publisher and their readers, not interrupt it. The brands that do this well are looking for the space to tell stories and contribute something valuable to the communities they're building, rather than treating Substack like just another distribution channel.

Rare Beauty’s partnership with Talia Mayden of There Y0u Are is a good example. For World Mental Health Day, they gave readers access to content through an early version of The Unlock. The brand made more of the work available instead of getting in the way.

We’re building formats that support our subscription model, not replace it. With The Unlock, more readers discover the work and the publisher still gets paid. 

With The Upgrade, readers decide whether to keep paying when the month wraps. Publishers choose which posts to sponsor and when, so readers can’t count on a post being free. These formats are new, so we don’t have long-term data yet, but we’re measuring it.

We’re starting with Substack bestsellers and being deliberate about how we grow. A paid subscription means readers chose to pay for that writer’s work, and that trust is what a brand has to earn its way into. Eligible bestsellers can turn on their Creator Kit to be considered. For everyone else, focus first on building a paid audience with a distinct voice.

A loyal audience and a healthy subscription base, plus communities that extend beyond posts into Notes, Chat, and DMs. Impressions and clicks still matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. The question is whether the sponsorship 

changed how someone feels about the brand, not only whether they saw it.

A CMO recently told me Substack is like Reddit with experts. It’s not an exact parallel, but it speaks to where brand-building is going: community, authenticity, and trust. Readers choose a voice, and many pay for it, so the trust is earned. 

Sponsorships let a brand support that community instead of interrupting it, through editorial partnerships, events, audio and video, or subscriber perks. Brands support independent voices; they don’t shape what they say.

Absolutely. In September, people discovered long-form posts in the Substack app more than 100 million times, more than double the year before. The app now drives over 40% of new subscriptions. 

The creators who stand out have a distinct perspective, build trust and show up consistently. We recommend publishing at least once a week to start. You don’t need an existing audience or big operation to start building. 

There’s no single formula. Every creator is building a different business. Paid subscriptions are the foundation, but they don’t have to be the ceiling.

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Speak soon,
Amanda

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