Today we’re debuting a new series we’re calling Substack Originals. These videos, made by our friends at Cash Studios, celebrate some of the fascinating people who publish here. We’re also introducing a new space to watch these videos, and others like them, in the Substack app.
The heart of Substack lies in the diversity and quality of work that writers and creators share on the platform; their creativity, ingenuity, and brilliance are perpetually inspiring to us. So this summer, we partnered with Cash Studios to produce a series of films spotlighting a few of these remarkable voices. The formats vary, including short “Getting to Know” interviews; a “Lip Service” series, where writers read aloud from some of their most compelling Substack posts; and a “Haiku” series, which puts creators on the clock to write a poem on a surprise topic.
As a company dedicated to celebrating and supporting creators, we know that the best work arises when talented people are given creative freedom. With these videos, our only direction to the Cash Studios team was to showcase the range—both the human and cultural range and the format range—of creators on Substack (and the subjects had to be able to show up in New York City on filming day). The results speak to the ludicrously interesting people who publish here; no two Substackers, or videos celebrating their work, are the same. In this post, we’re sharing a selection from the series, but they’re all worth watching.
Check out more of the Substack Originals films in the newly launched media tab in the Substack app for iOS and Android. There, you’ll be able to explore video and audio from Substack’s broad array of talented creators, well beyond the few we were able to feature here. You’ll see the latest work by creators you subscribe to, in addition to discovering new voices. We hope the media tab, which is in its earliest stage and will evolve over time (please give us feedback!), becomes a place where you can find something meaningful, intriguing, or thought-provoking to dive into, whenever you want and wherever you are. And if you see a recommendation you don’t love, just swipe left or tap the three-dot menu to “Hide” it for the future.
Both the creator films and the media tab share a common goal: to bring bigger audiences, and especially more paying subscribers, to Substack’s many wild talents—whether they’re writers, artists, journalists, photographers, podcasters, videographers, or multi-hyphenate creatives. We have good reason to suspect that these audiences will benefit the Substacker community at large: our data shows that subscribers brought in by video creators are 43% more likely to subscribe to additional publications and 52% more likely to pay for other Substacks they discover.
This is one small, exploratory step in what we hope is a long campaign to bring each creator the best possible audience. If it all works together, we’ll dramatically expand the number of people who come, stay, and pay for great culture in every format, for big and small publishers alike.
Introducing Substack Originals, and a new way to explore video