Substack Februarykastrenakes Theverge: It’s been almost a year since Substack released their initial publishing platform. A lot has changed since then — but the company looks to continue developing features meant to make the process of maintaining and designing your own publication more efficient.
On February 1st, they plan on rolling out a “multipub” tool that will let users aggregate newsletters and podcasts they manage under one publication, as well as make changes across all their publications at once. This will be significant for readers, who may only want to subscribe to one single newsletter or podcast, but have no way of consolidating those things together.
Multipub will be a paid feature (at $8/month), but it’s a relatively small price to pay for those who find managing multiple publications an arduous task.
Substack was founded in 2014 by former CTO Jake Stauffer, who felt the need for a “more user-friendly and feature-rich email publishing platform.”
The new platform is only compatible with either WordPress or Drupal — so those who like or use these platforms will be able to keep using it as a free tool. The plan is to continue adding compatibility with other CMS tools over time, however.
This is notable for those who have a CMS tool of choice, but value the efficiency that comes from using a publishing platform. While Substack has been largely focused on email newsletters, their recent additions are significant for anyone hoping to run an online publication in the future (podcasts included).
Substack states that all users will be able to access the new tool for free at first, with the ability to upgrade later. The company says they are still working out the pricing details.
And while they want to focus on the CMS tools in the short term, they say that they will be looking to add new tools, too — like analytics and a dashboard for publishers.
They add that there are plans to introduce a “pay once and publish forever” model after beta testing — which is sure to attract attention from some people who have been wary of the upfront cost for a lifetime subscription.
They add that they have plans to make the platform available to creators outside the US, too. It sounds like those who are looking for tools for building online publications should keep their eyes on Substack in the coming months.
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