What we borrow from 21st Century online newsletters

We will mimic the publishing tempo of a successful Substack newsletters: two or three short pieces (up to 750 words) on weekdays and a longer piece (up to 1500 words) on Sunday. The aim is to entice subscribers with a much better value proposition: the typical Substack or similar newsletter is reported, written and edited by one person, whereas LA Reported will employ full-time writers and editors as well as a large network of part-time editors and freelance writers.

While we will make all of our content available for free to the public; the newsletter system allows us to experiment with giving early access or other perks to reward paying subscribers.

Substack’s model gives publishers 87% of subscriber revenue and the platform is committed to expanding their local news distribution business. At the same time, it allows us to save on IT and other back-office functions, meaning more money for reporting, editing and fact-checking.