Top all-time · #5294
Simon Owens
Personal blog · simonowens.substack.comwritingbusinessculture
Simon Owens's personal blog at simonowens.substack.com covers writing, business and culture. Since 2019, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 56 times, most often “8 Creators reveal their #1 growth hack”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Simon Owens' Substack for its writing on the economics of the ad-based internet and local journalism. Commenters cite his posts as sources for their own points.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A newsletter about how publishers create, distribute, and monetize their digital content. This newsletter is free to subscribe to.
Most-linked posts?
- 8 Creators reveal their #1 growth hack2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-11-11
- Is Spotify's podcast exclusivity strategy working?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-10-15
- The Information's Paywall Strategy2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-24
What Hacker News says?
Counterpoint, "Judd Legum proved that investigative journalism can thrive on Substack": https://simonowens.substack.com/p/judd-legum-proved-that-inv...
Comment linking /p/judd-legum-proved-that-investigative
on “Alden Global Capital, the secretive hedge fund gutting newsrooms”Submitted The time it takes to run a paid newsletter as a story · 92 points
HN discussionYou typically won't see rising ad revenues during a recession. When times are hard, or look like they could get hard, advertising is the first thing cut. Its a well established pattern. Eg, from https://www.createwithnova.com/blog/the-history-of-advertisi... : > After the last recession in 2008, the US ad market declined by 13%. Newspaper ad spend fell 27%, radio spend 22%, magazine spend 18%, outdoor spend 11%, TV…
Comment linking /p/the-advertising-recession-is-definitely
on “The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process”Submitted ScoopWhoop became one of India's most viral publishers as a story · 30 points
HN discussionCongrats, that's awesome! Simon Owens has many articles about this – paywalled, ironically, but worth it IMO, and you could just pay for a month and then cancel. His case studies based on interviews with media entrepreneurs are especially good. Link: https://simonowens.substack.com/archive?sort=new
Comment linking /archive?sort=new
on “Milestone: My archaeology newsletter just hit 1K subs - next stop, monetization”Submitted Audible is becoming more like Amazon Prime Video as a story · 9 points
HN discussionI recently came across The Game Discoverer Newsletter, which seems to be about 100x more insightful and data rich than boilerplate journalism like Kotaku. They also have some other interesting data tools for game developers. More broadly, I'm not sure general "journalism" really has a bright future outside of the big names that can field huge advertising budgets. I'm more convinced that niche sites should specialize…
Comment linking /p/how-the-gamediscoverco-newsletter
on “Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath”Submitted MrBeast is changing the economics of YouTube as a story · 7 points
HN discussionWe have this also. https://coppellchronicle.substack.com/ Article about it: https://simonowens.substack.com/p/this-local-newsletter-cove... 40%+ conversion rate on substack.
Comment linking /p/this-local-newsletter-covering-a
on “Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home”Submitted How platforms like TikTok cause creator burnout as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted 8 Creators reveal their #1 growth hack as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Patreon Is Struggling as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Medium Failed as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Maria Brito used Instagram to build a 7-figure art consulting business as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The creator economy is not failing to spread the wealth as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The gritty reality for Substack's middle class as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted You don't need ads to monetize your media company as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lessons I've learned while running a paid newsletter as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Creator Economy "middle class" does exist as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted 8 creators reveal their #1 growth hack as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Selling high-priced products to few people as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Hurdles micropayment platforms can’t overcome as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Information's Paywall Strategy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How many videos does it take to get to 1M YouTube subscribers? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Blue Wire grew its network to over 150 sports podcasts as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Josh Spector monetizes his 25,000 newsletter subscribers as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Are editors actually vital? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Rich Miller built a thriving media company focused on the data center industry as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why Medium is succeeding where other “platishers” failed as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tinyletter was one of the greatest missed opportunities in tech as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
