List of ‘Contrarian’ newsletters grows
Thanks to the help of my readers, my list of alternative media All-Stars has grown significantly. This growing list proves the # of authors on “our side” dwarfs the list of Substack’s Statist authors.
UPDATE (MONDAY AFTERNOON):
I’ve now merged two tranches of subscription data and have an updated list/ranking - “Substack’s Top 137 Contrarian” Authors. Thanks for sharing this document, which might be a good resource. I’ll do another update in a few days after more readers and authors give me other newsletters I omitted.
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Thanks to impressive “crowd-sourcing” participation, I can now add 37 more Substack newsletters which meet my subjective label of sites authored by “Covid Contrarians” and/or “Freedom” writers.
Below I list the 37 newsletters I “missed” in my first effort to list and rank newsletters that provide journalism and commentary that will never be published by the mainstream media.
Notes:
Most of these previously-omitted newsletters were pointed out by readers who read Phase One of this on-going project (which ranked 100 sites). A few omitted authors politely told me I’d left them off this list.
I apologize for the earlier omissions, which were not intentional, and greatly appreciate the feedback that has allowed me to make this list or “leaderboard” more definitive.
I will continue to add to this list as more readers or authors alert me of other omissions.
Tomorrow (Monday), I will add these 37 newsletters to my original list, which will now be the “Top 137.” For future updates, I will include any newsletter with at least 1.3K subscribers. (Below the Top 12, new Rankings will be significantly different. For example, my newsletter will now drop from No. 68 to probably the low 90s.)
A Key Finding now has even more supporting evidence …
This round of updates further reinforces the conclusion that “Covid Contrarians” - loosely captured in Substack’s leaderboards under the heading “Health-Politics” - represent one of the most significant subject-matter categories produced by Substack authors. (“Politics” might be the only larger category.)
This growing list also reinforces my earlier conclusion that the universe of authors who write on topics similar to those I write about is vastly larger than authors who parrot and support the “Status-Quo” or Statist narratives.
However, it should be noted that the total subscriber numbers of these 137 writers pales in comparison to the subscriber numbers employed by mainstream media news organizations, which must employ at least 50,000 journalists and editors in America alone.
FWIW, the average subscriber number for these additional newsletters is 15,568. The median subscription figure is 11,900.
The cumulative subscriber numbers for this tranche of 37 Substack newsletters is approximately 576,000.
The cumulative subscriber number of all 137 newsletters is approximately 4.98 million, with the average “Contrarian” site having 36,350 subscribers. (Note: I’ll calculate the median figure - 1/2 of newsletters have more subscribers/half have fewer - when I add all 137 newsletters to the updated list).
“Total subscriber” numbers for the top 137 range from 1,300 subscribers to 495,000.
Also, I found - and listed - two more Substack newsletters where total subscriber figures were NOT listed.
Of personal interest, I’m happy to report that this project has allowed my own subscriber numbers to exceed 7,000. I now have 7,020 total subscribers - 76 more subscribers than I had a couple of days ago.
I also believe this expanded list continues to capture the top one or two percent of all “contrarian” Substack authors.
By the Numbers updated with these 37 additions …
53 - Approximate number of Substack newsletters in this (now expanded) list who have 25,000 or more subscribers. Members in this group probably generate at least $50,000/year (gross) from their Substack writing.
105 - From this new list of 137 newsletters, number of Substack authors in the Covid Contrarian/Freedom market who have at least 5,000 total subscribers.
4.98 million - Approximate cumulative subscription figure of all 137 newsletters. (Note: This would include many “duplicate” subscribers).
** * (Numerous shares and cross-posts helped me update this list and make it closer to “definitive.” I appreciate readers who include links to these two articles in the Reader Comments of their favorite Substack newsletters).
New Additions to Top Contrarian Substack Authors …
Note: * signifies new additions to original list.
25K to 67K (9) …
*Jon Rappoport: 66.9K+
*Julie Kelly (“Declassified with Julie Kelly”): 50.9K+
Note: Ms. Kelly’s writing focuses on “weaponization of DOJ” and J-6 content.
*Heather Heying (“Natural Selections”): 34.9K
*2nd Smartest Guy in the World: 33.9K+
*C.J. Hopkins: 31.9K+
*Dr. Byram W. Bridle (“COVID Chronicles”): 26.9K+
*Robert Yoho, MD (“Surviving Healthcare”): 25.9K+
*Elizabeth Nickson (“Welcome to Absurdistan”): 24,900+
*Dr. Ah Kahn Syed (“Arkmedic’s Blog”): 24.9K+
10K to 22K (10) …
*Dr. Christiane Northrup (“True North”): 21.9K+
*Tessa Lena (“Tessa Fights Robots”): 20,900+
*Alex Krainer’s Substack: 18.9K+
Note: Krainer’s primary focus is challenging dubious economic narratives
*Matt Ehret’s Insights: 16.9K+
*Dr. Joseph Sansone (“Mind Matters and Everything Else”): 15.9K+
*The Last American Vagabond Substack: 14.9K+
*Chris Bray (“Tell Me How this Ends”): 12,900+
*James Delingpole: 11.9K+
*Cynthia Chung (“Through a Glass Darkly”): 11.9K+
*Frances Leader (“Uncensored”): 11.9K+
5K to 10K (9) …
*Mike Adams (“The Health Ranger”): 9.9K+
*Karen Bracken (“Starve the Beast”): 9.3K+
*Christine Massey (“Christine Massey’s ‘germ’ FOI Newsletter”): 8.8K+
*Dr. Colleen Huber (“The Defeat of COVID”): 8.2K+
*Michael Gray Griffith (“Cafe Locked Out”): 7.7K+
*Iain Davis Substack: 6.7K+
*Moriarty (“Things Hidden in Complexity”): 6.5K+
** Madhava Setty (“An Insult to Intuition”): 5.7K+ (left off first update).
*Daniel Nagase, MD (“Logical Surprises”): 5.4K+
1.5K to 5K (9) …
*Dr. Grouf’s Health Protocols: 4.8K +
*Jacob Nordangard, PhD (“The Pharos Chronicles”): 4.8K+
*Amy Sukwan (“Amy’s Newsletter”): 3.6K+
*David Haggith (“The Daily Doom”): 3K+
*Just call me Jack (“Totality of Evidence News”): 2.5K+
Note: This author recently noted he had to to cutback on writing to pursue a “real job” (see Reader Comments).
*Joshua Stylman (“Reading Between the Lies”): 2K+
*Peter Nayland Kust (“All Facts Matter”): 1.7K+
*Rat (“Rat Says”): 1.5K+
*Ann Tomoko Rosen (“On Second Thought”): 1.5K+
No Subscriber Numbers Available …
Dr. John’s Blog (By Dr. John Day)
Good Citizen (“The Good Citizen”)
Note: Orange checkmark signifies the Good Citizen has “hundreds of paid subscribers.”
(Thank you for the new subscriptions. Please check back at my original story on Monday to see Updated Figures and revised rankings).
Totality of Evidence News (By Just Call Me Jack): 2,500+
Note: This author no longer publishes many original articles, but makes a good number of posts in “Notes.”
Post from Nov. 2, 2024:
Sub-headline: “Totality of Evidence will remain live, but updates will not be frequent.” The author noted his need for a larger income:
“A few months ago, I shared that I couldn't sustain my website updates without a steady income. I’m truly grateful to everyone who has supported me through Substack or Buy Me a Coffee; your contributions have help to keep TotalityofEvidence.com live and updated and allow me to pay a few bills.
“However, despite those who generosity donated, the funds raised have not been enough to create a full-time income—totalling just only a few thousand dollars is no longer sustainable for my personal needs.”
My comment: This is one of my worries about the Substack subscriber model, which does produce (a much-appreciated) supplemental income for most authors. However, only a tiny percentage and number of writers can make income that might approach the salaries of “mainstream” journalists and editors.
I just found another newsletter I should have added to today's updated list:
** Madhava Setty (“An Insult to Intuition”): 5.7K+
I have now added this newsletter via the edit function. The list is now 137 newsletters and I added one more with "at least 5,000" subscribers.
I can see the list is going to continue to grow. The "Health-Politics" ranking on Substack does NOT include many of these newsletters. For example, my own, Simulation Commander, Mark Oshinkie and many others.