Milestone: Underdog Newsletter Secures First Paid Subscribers
Subscriber questions will guide much of Capitol Press' lawmaker coverage after our successful migration to Substack allows us to better interact with our readers
NEW. Capitol Press quietly migrated to
last weekend after adding zero paid subscribers over 25 newsletters. Hundreds of subscribers signed up for the free version of Capitol Press. Zero paid to upgrade, but some had tried to and been rejected by the subscription tools we had improperly configured back in January.FACT. Pablo and Arturo, not tech bros.
TREND. Substack is a trusted subscription platform backed by a reliable suite of publishing and community modules that work well together. Capitol Press joins Once Upon a Hill, Regular Order, Askapol, The Bulwark, and The Dispatch, as outlets using Substack to cover Congress.
RAIN. Capitol Press processed its first subscription payments from readers this week. The first paid subscribers came just days after Arturo migrated the underdog newsletter to Substack, a platform that provides the most reliable tools for serving customer payments, plus a robust suite of community-building tools.
HAUL. Capitol Press ends the week up $256 (USD) in gross annualized subscription revenue. We started the week with zero after struggling to configure and deploy a reliable payment mechanism on a separate email newsletter service we launched with on January 8.
ARCHIVES. Moving forward, Capitol Press will be almost entirely paywalled. Starting today, the archive is where you’ll be able to access our work beyond the teasers we post on social media.
EXCEPTION. Breaking news that we think is in the public interest will get posted publicly for up to 30 days before it, too, is archived and accessible only to paid subscribers.
HEY SENATOR. So far, the most popular reporting we’ve done at Capitol Press has been listicles of responses that Senators gave us to our question of the week. “Hey Senator” (and coming soon: “Hey Congressman”) will be bread and butter news products for us during the weeks when Congress is in session.
JOIN THE CONVO. We know some of the best questions come from the most engaged communities, which is exactly what we’re looking to build here on Substack. So if you pay for a subscription, we hope you will answer our vibe checks and calls to subscribers for lawmaker questions that we post in Substack Notes.
COMMUNITY. Great questions are what make or break “Hey Lawmaker” listicles, so we’re opening the comments and community features on Substack to our paid subscribers. Our hope is that our community here can help inform our beat with smart questions.
LAST THING. For just $8/month or $80/year, you can help keep Capitol Press your watchdog in halls of power, holding lawmakers accountable, and getting you news you can't find anywhere but our underdog beat. Happy Sunday!
FUN FACT. Jaime Dupree is a veteran Hill reporter who writes the Regular Order, the first Substack-powered newsletter on the Capitol beat.
Every milestone is worth celebrating. Here's to a successful year ahead! ✊🏽