Head of Brand & Communications, @SubstackInc l Formerly @TheAtlantic @people @AAknopf l @USC & @NYUStern alum
New York
Joined December 2008
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Helen Tobin retweeted
Livestreaming on Substack broke through last night! It means a lot that so many politics creators made Substack their home base for election night live coverage
From a pure media attention perspective, four big winners from last night for four different reasons.
1. Kornacki Cam — small second cam decision was NBC's biggest win of the night
2. Hasan Piker — ~300,000 live viewers on one stream plus ~100,000 on fan account re-streams, beating mainstream outlets
3. New York Times dial — won the screenshot sharing battle across X, Threads, and Bluesky
4. Substack — ~200,000+ live viewers across different newsletter video offerings. Impressive for a text-first community
Helen Tobin retweeted
As hometown newspapers disappear, independent local reporters like @LauraRBelin in Des Moines, Iowa are holding the powerful to account
Helen Tobin retweeted
Vanity Fair says Substack is “akin to Instagram or Grindr: a tech company, yes, but also an undeniable element of the fabric of contemporary life” 🧡
Substack has ballooned to 5 million paid subscriptions and has a valuation of $1.1 billion. But can it, as the title of cofounder Hamish McKenzie’s new memoir suggests, really 'Save the Media'? vanityfair.com/story/hamish-…
Helen Tobin retweeted
Substack CEO @chrisbest asks legendary producer @rickrubin: “Have you tried AI for music?”
Helen Tobin retweeted
Publishers Weekly reviewed my upcoming book, How to Save the Media, and called it "a glimmer of hope".
Full review:
'McKenzie (Insane Mode), cofounder of Substack, makes a convincing case for a media system based on direct relationships between creators and audiences. As social networks upend traditional news outlets, he urges the industry to adopt a business model like Substack’s subscription-based system. “The marriage of infrastructure that supports direct relationships with a set of incentives that align the platform, publisher, and audience is one of the keys to a new era in media,” he argues. This direct-to-consumer approach, he explains, enables writers to sidestep traditional power brokers, like TV networks, advertisers, and billionaires. Subscription journalism, the past province of eccentric independents, is now making millionaires of writers, he claims, pointing to Heather Cox Richardson, a Boston College history professor who formerly posted for free on Facebook and now writes about politics for thousands of paying subscribers on Substack. Elsewhere, McKenzie relates a riveting recent history of media, from Twitter’s twice-attempted purchase of Substack to Bari Weiss’s founding of The Free Press on Substack and subsequent hiring as the head of CBS News. Pushing back against criticism that Substack just tells readers what they want to hear, McKenzie envisions the direct-subscription model will enable a more thoughtful future. It’s a glimmer of hope in a bleak media landscape.'
Helen Tobin retweeted
A wave of artists, like Charli XCX and Doechii, are using Substack to take control of their narratives and to have deeper conversations with fans. Is it working? rollingstone.com/music/music…
Helen Tobin retweeted
Jack Clark @jackclarkSF co-founder of Anthropic @claudeai, Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkeshpodcast, and I had a good discussion, and it has been published, free to all, at the link below. I greatly admire both Jack and Dwarkesh and was happy to participate.
The AI revolution is here. Will the economy survive the transition?
open.substack.com/pub/post/p…
Helen Tobin retweeted
The Online Safety Act is giving us "papers, please" for the internet.
The UK already arrests over ten thousand people per year for online communications offenses, the OSA adds classification and identify verification.
Helen Tobin retweeted
I love Substack. It is really designed for writers and readers.
Helen Tobin retweeted
Launched on Substack in the last few days
Charli XCX
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss
Dolly Parton
Helen Tobin retweeted
.@DKThomp is moving to Substack and it's going to be so, so good. Here's part of his manifesto:
"In bookstores, Abundance tends to reside in the current affairs section. But this is really a book about attention. It’s about the questions Democrats haven’t been focused on and the solutions hiding in places they might not be looking. It’s about locating new ideas in liberalism’s field of vision."
"As the reception to Abundance bloomed, I realized I wanted to devote my full time as an independent writer and thinker to develop ideas in this space."
Helen Tobin retweeted
I was a reporter and anchor for ABC News. And as you may have heard … I'm not there anymore.
Now I'm on Substack, that amazing space, and I can't wait to get into the important work that we all have to do.
Helen Tobin retweeted
Many writers—both household names and passionate amateurs—are finding success on the same platform: Substack. nyer.cm/7DpyKJU
Helen Tobin retweeted
The story of how @chrisbest and I built Substack, thanks to @guyraz and @HowIBuiltThis
open.spotify.com/episode/5E7…
Helen Tobin retweeted
In this week’s episode of The Generalist podcast, I’m joined by Substack founders Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie.
The Substack Playbook: Inside The $650M Platform Rewriting Media, Trust, and Creator Economics | Chris Best & Hamish McKenzie (Co–Founders)
In a world where attention is fragmented and algorithms rule the content landscape, @chrisbest and @hamishmckenzie are taking a radically different approach with @substack. Rather than chasing clicks, Substack focuses on a simple yet powerful idea: creators should own their work and make money directly from their audience through paid subscriptions. With over 5 million paid subscriptions and tens of millions of active readers, Substack has turned this model into a transformative force in media. In this episode, Chris and Hamish unpack how they’re reshaping creator economics, navigating AI’s role in creativity, and enabling a new era for writers, from serialized fiction to short–form video. Their bet? That if content adds real value—whether it educates, entertains, or helps people earn—audiences will pay for it.
Listen now:
• YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=oFbL5G0C…
• @spotifypodcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/4Aq…
• Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
A big thank you to the incredible sponsors that make the podcast possible:
✨ Vanta — Automate compliance and simplify security: vanta.com/mario
✨ Brex — The banking solution for startups: brex.com/mario
✨ WorkOS — The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS: workos.com/mario
In our conversation, we explore:
→ How Substack grew from a simple newsletter tool to a multi–format media platform with 5 million+ paid subscriptions
→ Why the "soul connection" between creators and audiences is becoming more valuable in an AI–dominated world
→ The inside story of Substack's clash with Elon Musk and how it ultimately strengthened their platform
→ Why the ceiling for great writing and culture might be much higher than we're currently imagining
→ How Substack's subscription model creates dramatically better economics for creators than ad–supported platforms
→ Chris's "grand unified theory" for how AI will influence content creation and consumption
→ Why their short–form content isn't just a "sticky trick" but a pathway to deeper engagement and discovery
→ The future of traditional prestige media brands
… And much more!
Helen Tobin retweeted
he attention economy, the eyeball economy, the fact that people are spending a lot of their time in these apps on their phone... That's not going to go back. To me the interesting question is how do we make the most of that?" @chrisbest @substack
#SirHarrySummit
Helen Tobin retweeted
Anchors aweigh ...... you might say
Where the stranded TV anchors go, by @jtes nytimes.com/2025/03/31/busin…
Helen Tobin retweeted
We are partnering with @TheFIREorg to stand up for free speech in the face of recent government actions against critics of U.S. foreign policy.
We will work to protect writers who are targeted in this way.
