By Alexander Lee  •  March 18, 2025  •

Ivy Liu

However, that’s from a low base. During that period, video posts represented only 3 percent of all posts on Substack, per Subalytics’ analysis. Of the roughly 2.8 million posts creators published on Substack between February 2024 and February 2025, just under 91,000 contained embedded videos.

“This is where you traditionally get into this situation where you have a big company — or a slightly big company, in Substack’s case — and they make a strategic decision to prioritize a feature,” said Subalytics CEO Timofey Pletz. “But the question here is, has anybody actually asked the user base, ‘is this what they want?’”

Substack creators’ use of video is still growing. In April 2024, “over half” of the platform’s 250 highest-earning creators published audio and video posts, with that figure increasing to 82 percent by February 2025, according to a Substack spokesperson. However, as Substack’s video posting activity increases, the platform is at risk of bumping up against a potential ceiling. At the moment, there is a contingent of Substack creators that is unlikely to ever incorporate videos into its posts.

Four Substack creators, including writer and literary agent Kate McKean, whose newsletter has over 30,000 subscribers, told Digiday that they could not think of any potential new tools or functions that would convince them to step up their video posting on the platform.

“I just don’t think of that platform for video. There’s YouTube if I wanted to pivot to video myself,” McKean said. “I have probably discounted Substack’s video offerings because some other platforms’ ‘pivot to video’ hasn’t worked. I assume this will come and go, too. If not and Substack becomes primarily a video platform and the readers leave, I’ll go write my newsletter somewhere else.”

Substack creator Jeannine Ouellette, whose newsletter discussing the craft of writing, Writing in the Dark, has over 17,000 followers, said that some writers on the literary side of the platform would consider moving their communities elsewhere if video continued to proliferate on Substack. At the moment, it is possible for creators to access a full list of their subscribers on the Substack back end, meaning any creator who wanted to move to another platform could easily export their subscriber list via Substack’s Publisher Dashboard.

“It feels like that transition that happened on Instagram, when it went from photos to Reels, and suddenly it’s just a completely different platform,” she said. “And I think that writers like me, who have invested in building our communities on that platform around the written word, are like, ‘huh — is what I’m doing really going to have a place here?’”

When asked about writers’ concerns over Substack’s video push, a company spokesperson said that the introduction of video on Substack is intended to help writers build deeper connections with their audiences, rather than representing a fundamental transformation of the platform. The spokesperson cited Substacks such as The Ankler and Patti Smith’s newsletter as examples of creators who have successfully incorporated video into their Substack posts.

“These creators are showing that video and audio don’t have to replace the written word; they enrich it,” the spokesperson said. “Substack gives creators and publishers the freedom to tell their stories in the ways that work best for them, and we’re excited to see more creators experiment with formats that enhance their storytelling.”

Currently, many of the Substack creators who use video are users with pre-existing audiences on the platform who decided to try out video once Substack introduced the format, rather than dedicated video creators who made a conscious move over to Substack. Author Courtney Maum, whose Substack has over 38,000 followers, said that she was initially skeptical of video on the platform, but found Substack’s video tools easy to use and now includes videos in roughly 25 percent of her posts.

“I think I’ll bring that up into the 30-ish percent range this year, but only when video makes my content clearer and more fun for my subscribers,” she said. “I won’t be using it just because Substack wants me to.”

Substack is actively working to recruit video creators from platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. In January, the company announced the TikTok Liberation Prize, awarding $25,000 to TikToker Aaron Parnas — whose Substack has over 365,000 followers — for posting a video encouraging TikTok users to join Substack.

“We have a dedicated team focused on recruiting and supporting creators on Substack, helping them make the most of what the platform has to offer, including live video,” said Substack head of partnerships Hanne Winarsky.

Parnas, who said he joined Substack 18 months ago but only started seriously investing time in the platform after winning the prize earlier this year, provided a rough estimate that about 70 percent of his overall posts on Substack have included embedded video. His Substack videos are original to the platform — although Parnas also cross-posts them to YouTube to grow his following in both places — and are mostly long-form, rather than the short-form videos that propelled Parnas to a following of over 3.3 million on TikTok.

“I don’t think we should be gatekeeping platforms based on the type of content,” Parnas said. “Honestly, I think that building a community requires people to be comfortable spreading content in the way they want to spread content. Whether that’s written or video, to me, doesn’t really matter.”

https://digiday.com/?p=572217