Robert Reich is the King of Substack
… Which must be telling us something.
Since I saw my Substack paid subscriber metrics are dropping like a lead drone in 2025, I’ve been battling the blues.
My battle against the blahs became more acute when I messed up and looked at the Substack metrics of Robert Reich, who, in my opinion, is one of the most liberal and “wacko” commentators in the world.
(Note: I’m a free subscriber to Reich’s Substack, my effort to monitor how the other half thinks).
According to Substack, Mr. Reich currently has 519,900+ total subscribers.
(Note 2: When you click on a Substack author’s name, Substack provides this author’s total number of subscribers.)
While I’m not completely sure, Robert Reich might be the biggest Substack All-Star of them all. If he’s not the King of Substack, he’s at or near the top of the list.
From previous research, I know most well-known Substack authors have a paid ratio of at least 4 percent.
For example, my ratio of paid subscribers to total subscribers is currently 4.16 percent (6,960 total subscribers of which 290 - eeks! 289 - are paid).
(Note 3: My “paid ratio” used to be 4.7 percent so this metric is going in the wrong direction).
If Bill Clinton’s former secretary of labor has a paid ratio of 4.16 percent, Reich has at least 21,628 paid subscribers.
An annual subscription at Reich’s site is $50/year or $5/month, which would equate to $60/year.
If we use the lower figure of $50/per year, Mr. Reich is grossing at least $1.081 million/year from his Substack writing.
(Reich is an avid supporter of taxing the rich at the highest-possible rates, so I assume he wouldn’t mind giving Uncle Sam at least $500,000 of his writing salary.)
Some quick context …
In data pieces, I often try to provide context.
With this article, I was interested in comparing Reich’s subscriber and revenue numbers to the “all-stars” in the “Covid Contrarian” market.
From a cursory review, the top three Covid Contrarian writers seem to be:
Dr. Robert Malone: 347,000 total subscribers
Steve Kirsch: 256,900
Alex Berenson: 244,000
The average for the Top 3 Covid Contrarians is 282,633 total subscribers.
This means Robert Reich has 45.7 percent more subscribers than the average of the three authors who’ve done the best job tapping into the “contrarian market.”
Reich also has 172,900 more subscribers than the leader of “our” group, Dr. Robert Malone.
Why these subscriber metrics interest me …
These observations interest me because I believe it was the “Covid Contrarians” who put Substack on the map.
In February/March 2020, when the official pandemic commenced, few people had heard of Substack.
However, within several months to a year, contrarian writers who were skeptical of the official narrative flocked to Substack, a platform created to help “independent writers.”
It’s thus ironic (or telling) that, today, this platform’s biggest money-makers are people who have never questioned a single claim of the Covid experts or authorities.
For example, Dan Rather, who is as liberal as Reich, has 407,000 total subscribers for his “Steady” Substack.
Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE), a lady named Katelyn Jetelina who agrees with every authorized epidemiologist, has 296,900+ total subscribers.
Compared to all other media platforms, Substack (perhaps?) remains a safe haven for Covid contrarians.
However, the ultra-liberal, statist, globalist and “comply-or-else” cohort represented by Reich, Rather and YLE is clearly the ascending group, according to Substack metrics.
This worry continues to gnaw at me …
A Substack observation from years ago still worries me today.
While the founders and executives of Substack may have benefitted greatly from writers like myself, the company’s key executives apparently don’t think like my readers.
That is, by now, Substack has published libraries full of brilliant journalism, analysis and research that debunks all of the false Covid narratives.
It’s hard to know for sure, but I’d guess at least 25 percent of Substack’s 17,000-plus authors would qualify as skeptics not only of the Covid narratives, but all other dubious narratives.
However, none of the arguments or conclusions made by this army of great thinkers and writers seems to have resonated with the founders of this company.
***
If the company’s founding mission was to protect genuine free speech, I’m worried these important executives could “go wobbly” (or, perhaps, already have.)
Regardless of the reasons, it seems clear to me that Substack’s liberal, conventional-wisdom-supporting authors are growing faster than the “Covid Contrarian” or “freedom” writers … Or radical liberals are more popular with the company’s key executives.
Expressed differently, the writers who put Substack on the media map are not the writers Substack is aggressively or enthusiastically promoting. Indeed, this group may, in fact, embarrass the platform’s founders.
I’ve picked up on other little tells …
Like all Substack authors, I also receive feature stories on rising Substack all-stars.
I’ve noted with interest that all of these articles seem to promote the liberal or narrative-protecting group of Substack writers … or I’ve never seen one of these articles that promotes someone like me.
To me, this is another clue I might be toiling in the disfavored group.
For what it’s worth, analysis of my own key Substack metrics has convinced me “something” changed on Substack about nine months ago.
A paranoid view would be that for some reason(s), someone is somehow manipulating the growth algorithms/metrics of Substack authors who might be perceived as a threat to the Status Quo.
Since I’m being candid in my speculations, I should also mention that the subscriber metrics of liberal or Statist newsletters like those mentioned above (and others not mentioned) strike me as dubious at best.
*** (In an effort to keep my readership levels respectable, I keep adding this button to my articles.) ***
In my opinion, our group of content creators should be doing better …
When I look around the world today, I see trends that contradict each other or don’t jibe with my observations.
For example, Donald Trump just won the presidential election fairly easily … and received more votes than Kamala Harris in more than 90 percent of the nation’s counties.
This tells me citizens and voters who are not fans of the Status Quo are, in fact, the “ascending” group.
This development should mean the pool of people who identify with the Substack “freedom” writers should be expanding.
Also, mainstream media news organizations are clearly Dead Men Walking, a demise that will only accelerate if the main revenue source of these companies - Big Pharma advertising - is taken away.
But in recent months on Substack, it’s the liberal writers who seem to be prospering most.
My compatriots in arms seem to be in the group that’s treading water with, perhaps, growing numbers considering giving up the fight due to stagnant or regressive subscriber/readership trends.
Frankly, I don’t know what to make of these curious trends.
It’s possible, I guess, “our” side has, suddenly, decided “we’ve done enough” or, for whatever reason, our troops are no longer as fully-engaged in our fight as they were a year or two ago.
Conversely, perhaps Never-Trumpers and vaccine enthusiasts - terrified of being deported or sent to concentration camps or not being able to get their annual flu shots - have flocked to Substack (just like the Covid Contrarians did four years ago.)
All I know is when I started my Substack 2 1/3 years ago Robert Reich didn’t have more than a half million subscribers.
If nothing else, Robert Reich deserves credit for allowing free subscribers to make comments at his newsletter - a posting privilege not allowed by America’s Local Epidemiologist or Rather, previously America’s best-known TV “journalist.”
Rather, who is holding “Steady,” doesn’t even allow people like me to subscribe to his site. (I tried again yesterday, but I’m still banned for making an unauthorized comment 12 months ago).
In conclusion, it seems to me that Substack’s real all stars - the authors most responsible for making this writers’ platform a major player in the “content” world - will continue to be treated like the proverbial red-headed stepchild.
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On-deck:
While researching the subscription numbers of various Substack authors, I got carried away and ended up ascertaining the subscription numbers of scores of Substack authors.
In my next dispatch, I’ll simply post these numbers, including subscription numbers from many of the best-known “Covid contrarian” newsletter authors.
I’ll, of course, add a few random comments.
(While on a net basis, I keep losing subscribers, a few generous readers continue to become paid subscribers - which has made my attrition less acute than it otherwise would have been. My readers are also very generous putting bread in my “tip jar,” which is greatly appreciated … Onward! Let’s keep stirring things up.)
Cutting-Room-Floor text:
Based on Substack metrics, the message of Our Local Epidemiologist seems to be resonating with far more people than my message is.
(My message is the country should fire Your Local Epidemiologist. However, the chief stenographer of Team Fauci seems to have gotten a nice pay raise on Substack.)
Consider that Substack payments could be rather like payments for Hunter Biden's "art", just a thinly disguised way to launder bribes.