Most communications teams have accepted the premise by now: reporters who left institutional newsrooms took their beats and their audiences with them, and a media list built only from traditional outlets misses a meaningful share of where decision-makers actually read. What hasn't caught up is everything that happens after you add those independent writers to the list.

That's the argument from Ashley Waters, VP of media relations at PAN, in a new piece for PR Daily. Waters draws on PAN research into how B2B PR teams should approach Substack and its peers.

The audience numbers back the shift. More than a third of people (39%) regularly read at least one Substack publication. That rises to 55% among Gen Z and 49% among millennials. Technology is the platform's second-largest content category at 18%, behind news and politics at 21%. And 18% of readers say their usage has grown over the past year.

So how should PR teams pitch these writers? Waters complicates the conventional wisdom: the fundamentals of a good pitch don't change — know the writer's work, know their audience, bring something specific. But several mechanics do.

Subscriber count is the wrong first question

Independent publications rarely issue media kits, and subscriber numbers are usually private. That gap leads PR teams to overvalue the few newsletters that publish their numbers or dismiss the ones that don't.

Neither makes sense. A newsletter with 2,000 fintech CFOs who comment, share and reply to the writer is worth more to the right client than a general business publication with 10 times the list but inactive subscribers.

When subscriber data isn't available, Waters points to substitute signals: Substack's leaderboard rankings and category badges, traffic estimates from SparkToro or SimilarWeb, the writer's LinkedIn following, and engagement on recent issues.

Willingness to pay matters too. PAN's research found 42% of people would pay for a newsletter subscription and 28% would pay more than $5 a month. The 58% who wouldn't are largely the free-tier audience — present, but not necessarily engaged. Publications with real paid bases have concentrated their most responsive readers behind the paywall, which is exactly why a smaller subscriber count can understate a newsletter's influence.

The platform's messaging system is not a pitching tool

This is potentially the costliest mistake. Substack's in-platform messaging lets writers flag messages as spam, and enough flags can restrict your account access. One mass note through the platform could end your ability to reach anyone on it.

Waters advises confirming through LinkedIn or email that a writer takes pitches before sending anything through Substack itself. Better still, reply to a newsletter edition. A response shows you actually read a recent issue and is a more credible opening than a cold message.

Qwoted has also become a real sourcing channel here — something that surprises people. Several independent writers Waters' team works with source through it regularly, the same way trade reporters do.

AI detection raised the cost of a lazy pitch

Substack launched AI detection tools in August that estimate how much of a publication's content is human-written, and subscribers can see this. Many writers left institutional newsrooms specifically for closer relationships with their readers; a templated pitch signals exactly the wrong thing. That has always been true, Waters writes. What's changed is that tolerance is now close to zero — and the writers who care most are often the ones with the most concentrated professional audiences.

Specificity is the whole game: reference a recent issue by topic, offer data or executive access the writer can't easily source elsewhere, and pitch angles that map to what they actually cover. Most independent writers want trend analysis and implications, not product launches or funding rounds.

What it looks like when it works

Waters offers three examples from PAN's own programs, each with a different entry point.

For a startup technology client, the agency paired an angle on clarity in leadership with proprietary consumer data and brought it to Tony Case at workwire, a newsletter he launched after covering the beat at WorkLife and Adweek. It became a CEO interview and the lead story in that edition.

For a payments client, PAN answered a Qwoted request from Brendan Ragan at The Fintercept, a fintech newsletter with roughly 2,000 subscribers built entirely around C-suite perspective. That produced coverage — and an ongoing relationship worth considerably more than the single placement.

For a customer experience client, PAN identified Mark Levy's DCX as a relationship worth building, connected on LinkedIn, shared specific thoughts on his work and stayed in touch for months before pitching. When a major announcement came, the relationship was already in place.

Measure it accordingly

Results here show up as executive engagement, inbound inquiries, social discussion, newsletter shares and citations by mainstream outlets — not impressions or circulation. There's a multiplier effect: independent writers may speak at industry events, appear on podcasts and maintain significant LinkedIn presences, so a relationship can create opportunities beyond the newsletter itself.

There's also an AI angle. Newsletter posts are crawlable and indexable, and ungated placements are more accessible to AI systems than paywalled coverage.

The target media list continues to evolve. The mechanics for reaching those publications need to change with it.

Source: PR Daily (https://www.prdaily.com/you-added-substack-to-your-media-list-now-what/) / Source: pancommunications.com (https://www.pancommunications.com/)