On the surface, 5 USD per month sounds cheap, but that is 60 USD per year. Way more expensive that most /average/ monthly news magazines. One of the ways that traditional magazines kept their subscription costs incredibly cheap was huge advertising revenue. Thus, I would like to see Substack introduce /limited/ and /focused/ advertising options for readers and writers alike. Example: Imagine if you enable some ads, then get a discount on the subscription. It could be a worthy experiment.
Example: Vogue magazine (US) is incredibly expensive to produce (photograph, report, layout, print, deliver), but the annual subscription price is only 40 USD. How is that possible? (The September issue is legendary each year and weighs just shy of a metric tonne!) Every major fashion brand has huge multiple page inserts in each issue. (I guess half of each issue is just fashion ads -- but artfully done!)
Example: Vogue magazine (US) is incredibly expensive to produce (photograph, report, layout, print, deliver), but the annual subscription price is only 40 USD. How is that possible? (The September issue is legendary each year and weighs just shy of a metric tonne!) Every major fashion brand has huge multiple page inserts in each issue. (I guess half of each issue is just fashion ads -- but artfully done!)