Substack floats new ways for brands to get behind paid content

Substack has expanded its sponsorship tools to give creators more ways to earn from brands, including letting advertisers pay to open up paid content to readers for free.

The platform has introduced three new options as it builds out its sponsorships programme.

The first, called Upgrade, allows a brand to fund a month of paid access for a creator’s free subscribers. Readers can access the full publication during that period before deciding whether to pay for a subscription themselves when it ends.

Unlock works at the individual post level, with a brand sponsoring a piece of paid content so the creator still gets paid while the post becomes free for anyone to read.

A third option, Masthead, allows a brand to sponsor a dedicated page bringing together work from different writers and creators around a theme.

Substack is also introducing independent measurement from Kantar for larger campaigns, allowing advertisers to track changes in brand awareness, perception and consideration rather than relying solely on impressions and clicks.

Substack launched its sponsorships programme in June, saying it would connect eligible publishers directly with brands and give them another way to earn beyond paid subscriptions. Early partners included Balenciaga and T-Mobile.

Creators choose whether to participate, with the programme currently being tested among small groups of its bestselling publications.

Substack has positioned sponsorships as an additional source of income rather than a replacement for paid subscriptions, which remain at the centre of its business model.

“Subscriptions are the floor, but not the ceiling,” Substack’s head of sponsorships wrote in announcing the latest expansion.

The move comes as newsletter platforms increasingly try to become broader businesses for creators rather than simply tools for sending emails.

Substack has been particularly aggressive in that shift. Alongside subscriptions and sponsorships, it has been building its own app and recommendation feeds as alternative ways for creators to reach audiences, arguing earlier this year that email alone was becoming less reliable as a distribution channel.

The company is increasingly building more of the infrastructure creators need to reach and make money from their audiences directly into Substack.