Top Substack writers depart for Patreon

A platform better known for paid podcasts is poaching top newsletter talent. Patreon has successfully lured some top Substack newsletter writers — including Anne Helen Petersen, Lyz Lenz, and Virginia Sole-Smith — in recent days.

These are hardly the first writers and journalists to leave Substack. The “Why I’m Leaving Substack” post is the new “Goodbye to All That.” Previous departing writers often cited moderation issues — especially Nazis on the platform — and the implications of Substack’s 10% cut for the most successful subscription businesses. This most recent wave is also citing email delivery issues, a lack of customer and tech support, and overemphasis on social media features like Substack Notes.

“No one was getting my newsletter,” Lenz wrote on Bluesky. “There was no tech support. The people who couldn’t get the newsletter were forced to read it on the app. And beyond the moral arguments of the platform. It’s just not good business. It’s actually bad business.”

“With their hard pivot to Notes and the Substack App, the brand has decided to focus on turning readers into social media consumers,” Sole-Smith wrote. “That is a very different goal from turning readers into subscribers/people who care about supporting writers.”

Petersen, in turn, said a new “trending topics” box on Substack Notes that included headlines like “Swastika flag in GOP office triggers investigation,” “SCOTUS nears VRA gutting,” and “Young Republicans leak exposes racist group chats roiling GOP” helped push her to leave.

“I don’t want to be deeply invested in a platform whose business model is rooted in snagging readers through algorithmic manipulation. I don’t want to make money for founders who refuse to draw a line about platforming hate speech,” Petersen wrote. “I don’t want to serve as a one-person IT department for my readers and listeners who can’t resolve their account problems because Substack’s ‘support’ has been reduced to a bot. I don’t want to constantly fight Substack’s inclination to turn ‘readers’ into ‘followers’ who live on their app.

None of this would necessarily have been enough to convince the writers to jump ship if there weren’t a better option.

For years, Petersen wrote, she didn’t feel as if there was. But folks at Patreon reached out and convinced her the platform was a soft spot to land. (Other Substack expats have chosen Ghost or Beehiiv.) Patreon is developing a newsletter product for early adopters, Petersen said, and has promised to make adjustments as they grow.

She also appreciated that when readers have subscriptions issues, they can talk to an “actual support person — not a bot.” Her Culture Study newsletter often draws on reader contributions and Petersen felt that Patreon’s community, comments, and threads features were robust and easy-to-use.

One person who is not as enthusiastic about the newest Patreon joiners? Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie. He pushed back on some of the criticism on (where else?) Substack Notes.

“Patreon is spending big bucks to lure some Substack writers over to its platform, and some are taking the deal to escape the social features that drive their growth here. (They stay on Instagram, though.)” McKenzie wrote. “Meanwhile, Patreon is spending that money because it’s trying to spin up the network effects that Substack has by… building social features.”

Lenz called the post “a tantrum” and pointed out the economics simply weren’t working for her newsletter business.

“The ‘social media’ aspect only worked to a point. When I left Substack a few thousand of my subscribers were bots and junk. Many more weren’t qualified subscribers (people who never open), and it was bad for business,” she wrote.

She added, “If those growth features were working I wouldn’t have left. I was getting tons of new free subscribers but my open rates were tanking, my paid conversions were flat, it looked okay on paper but it wasn’t good for business.”

Getting a paid subscriber to open up their wallet once is hard enough. Those making the transition to a new platform are hoping they can convince their paid subscribers to do it again. All three writers are offering free trial subscriptions on Patreon. Lenz said she is already about 70% of the way to what her paid subscriber rate had been at Substack within two weeks on the new platform. Sole-Smith said almost 50% of her subscribers had made the transition.

Getting off Substack is the right move. I would compare it to moving from an app like Garageband to Ableton or Logic. Or switching from clip art to creative stock images. My business has grown. My readership has grown. Substack fills your list with junk signups, takes your money, and holds you back.

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— Ryan Broderick (@ryanhatesthis.bsky.social) October 29, 2025 at 10:37 AM

Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study is moving to Patreon from Substack. It’s one of the platform’s most successful publications & a beneficiary of its six-figure development program.

This is bad for Substack.

(Why Patreon is a separate conversation.)

www.instagram.com/p/DQXNyWyjv8…

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— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 6:30 PM