Newsletter platform Substack is ramping up its video ambitions and trying to lure TikTok stars to its service. The company announced a new “creator studio” that will offer a group of creators free promotion and other services if they “ turn their TikTok channels into Substack shows and communities.”
The program is part of a larger effort by the newsletter company to expand beyond text newsletters. The timing also happens to come just weeks after a bill that could ban TikTok in the United States became law, though Substack claims its plans are unrelated to the measure. “We’re not introducing this fellowship because of panic over a TikTok bill or ever-changing algorithms,” Substack’s Austin Tedesco writes in a blog post. Instead, he says, it’s about finding a replacement for all “ad-based platforms” which he says are “unreliable partners” for creators.
It’s not clear how Substack intends to create a better home for creators, t
