If you’re concerned that all your newsletter subscriptions will be lost in your inbox, Substack may have a solution. Today, the platform is launching an RSS reader called Substack Reader, which provides a streamlined collection of your latest newsletters. Any Substack newsletter you have already subscribed to will be automatically displayed and if you want you can also add third party RSS feeds.
The goal was to “create a distraction-free space” for people whose email inbox isn’t their ideal reading experience, said Chris Best, Substack CEO. The edge.
Substack Reader is launching as a beta version and it feels very much like a version one product. It presents a chronological list of every newsletter you have subscribed to, and you can click on those items to open them in a new window and read them. At the moment there is no way to read stories in Substack Reader like you can in a traditional RSS reader, and stories will remain in your queue even after you read them. (In-line reading is “something we think deeply about for the future,” Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie wrote in an email to The edge.)
The reader also separates podcasts published through Substack, and it shows a lock icon next to subscriber newsletters, which could help highlight how many non-paying readers are missing out on. Anyone can sign up for the beta starting today. At launch, it will only be available on the web. Mobile apps are “something we’ll be looking at,” Best said.
RSS readers have traditionally struggled to get a large enough audience for companies to continue to support them. Google infamously shut down Google Reader in 2013; Digg launched Digg Reader in response the same year and then shut it down five years later. Substack seems to think of its reader as a supplement to its newsletters, more than a competitor to full-blown RSS readers like Feedly. Still, Best said he hopes to expand the audience for a reader app by making it “ as easy and simple as possible to get started. ”
In the longer term, the service can finally give Substack a space to start recommending various newsletters to existing users. “I think one of the reasons we think an experience like this could be really good is that it could be a way of discovering new writers you want to subscribe to,” Best said.
As Substack adds discovery features, Best said the service will stay away from posting “a bunch of clicky stuff that’s super enticing,” and stick to the platform’s existing goal of fostering a relationship between readers and writers they can trust.
Substack is also adding some new basic discovery features to its website today. The service’s existing list of top publications is expanded with a number of specific categories (in addition to the previous ‘best paid’ and ‘best free’ lists), so you can see and explore the best political or business newsletters by your interests.