Newsweek

Newsweek moved its newsletters to beehiiv for more features at lower cost. Newsweek switched to beehiiv for more features at about 40% of the cost of its previous platform. Tyler Denk uses it as an example of large brands outgrowing Substack.

Time made the same switch. Tyler says ESPs charge from $100,000 a year for capabilities beehiiv offers at $79 a month.

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Percentage fees push the largest publishers off a free platform. A percentage take rate looks harmless at small scale but becomes meaningful as publishers grow, so the biggest ones leave. beehiiv's wedge was flat SaaS fees of $49, $79 and $159 a month by size, with a 0% take rate.

The top complaint on X about the leader was fees of $10,000 to $15,000 a year as publishers grow. One in seven new beehiiv writers now come from Substack, including Time and Newsweek. Tyler also says the platforms diverge: Substack is building a social platform, while beehiiv brings enterprise-level software to prosumers.

Subversive▶ 30:00