Local news startup Mill Media is the latest high-profile publisher to leave Substack. It plans to migrate its publications off the platform to build its own technology “stack” using the open-source content management system Ghost.
Mill Media founder Joshi Herrmann told Press Gazette that the company’s new titles covering Glasgow and London will soon launch on dedicated sites powered by Ghost and that its other four properties will follow.
Mill Media isn’t the only media company to feel it’s outgrown Substack. Politics publisher The Dispatch also left Substack in 2022 and moved to a new site powered by WordPress and Memberful in a move driven by its desire for greater flexibility, freedom, and control – as well as its desire to retain a greater portion of the subscription revenue it generates.
I also met with a senior exec at another high-profile Substack-based publication earlier this month who expressed similar frustrations with the limitations of Substack’s current platform and tools. The company is currently exploring options to stitch together its own technology stack instead – likely built on WordPress.