出版与作家生涯2020youtube.com
本·史密斯谈 Substack 与独立记者的崛起（视频）
Ben Smith on the rise of Substack and independent journalists [video]
导读
这期访谈讨论 Substack 的兴起：读者开始愿意为单个作者付费，而不只是为媒体平台付费。评论区围绕“为什么是现在”展开，并延伸到独立写作的两大代价——公共语境的碎片化，以及“独立作者”与“记者”之间的身份边界。对写作者来说，这既是在谈商业模式，也是在提醒：个人声音值钱的同时，你还得自己负责搭建读者能共用的背景和可信度。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
读者付费的对象正在从“平台渠道”转向“具体某个作者的声音”，因此持续输出有辨识度的个人视角，比追逐热点更能积累资产。
- 02
独立写作天然缺少公共语境：写到公共议题时要主动补背景、给出来源，别假设读者和你共享同一套信息环境。
- 03
把“观点”和“事实核查”分开标注，明确哪些是推测、哪些有多个信源，这是个人写作维持可信度的底线。
- 04
尽量把订阅名单和内容归档握在自己手里，别让读者关系完全依附于单一平台的域名和规则。
HN 评论精选
追问“为作者付费”这次为何能成，提醒写作者别把趋势当成既定事实。
过去的经验是：人们付费买的是“进入某个新闻平台的权限”，而不是某个有名有姓的作者，这也是早年的单篇微支付和订阅制的失败原因。Ben Smith 似乎认为市场变了，读者现在愿意为单个作者小额付费，但他没说清到底是什么变了。我很想知道这一次有何不同。
GreeniFi查看英文原文
Previous thinking (based on experience) was that people paid for access to a news platform rather than to individual name-brand writers. This was apparently why earlier efforts at micro-payments for articles failed and/or subscriptions failed. Ben Smith seems to think something has changed in the market such that people are now willing to make small payments to individual writers. However Smith does not say what has changed. I’d be curious to know what’s different this time and welcome any insight from the board.
独立内容会割裂共同语境，写作者需要主动为读者重建背景。
“独立新闻”的问题在于失去了关于世界的共享叙事，大家没有共同语境了。我今年给奶奶介绍了 YouTube，结果她很快就上瘾，完全不再看传统新闻，甚至没听说过弗洛伊德事件引发的抗议。以前我们会聊新闻里的事，现在她的订阅频道和我的毫无交集，就没话可说了。这像是退回前现代的部落状态：只有“本地”事件才与你相关，只不过“本地”变成了你订阅的独立创作者和他们各自的部落。问题不在于谁的观点更好，而在于失去了能和身边人对话的共同知识和语境。
igammarays查看英文原文
The problem with "independent journalism" is the loss of a shared coherent narrative about the world. There's just no shared context. Many don't even watch/read the news anymore. Earlier this year I introduced my grandma to YouTube, but I was surprised how fast she got hooked and stopped watching conventional news altogether, so much so that she hadn't even heard of the George Floyd protests. Whereas previously I used to talk with my grandma about stuff on the news, that stopped after she started watching YouTube, because her channel subscriptions do not intersect with mine, so we have nothing in common to talk about. It's a sort of regression to pre-modern tribalism where only "local" events matter to you -- except "local" means whatever independent content creators you are subscribed to, and their respective tribes. While this was always the case for much of the developing and pre-modern world, this is a new state of affairs for the West. The educated Western public is now regressing to a state of ignorance about global affairs to the extent that they have no idea what "global affairs" even means, all the while believing that they have a "better" worldview due to their "woke" independent analysis. The real problem is the loss of a shared context and common knowledge with which to engage in conversation with people around you.
独立写作缺少同业标准约束，作者要用自我核查来补位。
我认为独立记者算不上记者。新闻业需要有一套由受过训练的同业共同体维护的职业标准来约束。现在媒体生态的一大问题，就是某人发在个人小网站上的推测性观点文章，被和《纽约时报》那种经过事实核查、多信源报道的文章同等看待。有操守的独立“记者”当然可能存在，但不如直接叫他们本来的名字：博主。
aphextron查看英文原文
I would argue that independent journalists are not journalists. Journalism requires being held to a body of professional standards upheld by a common organization of other trained journalists. A lot of the problem with our current media landscape is that someone's speculative opinion piece on JoeBlowKnows.com is held in the same esteem as a fact checked, multiple source article from the New York Times. Ethical independent 'journalists' can surely exist, but lets call them what they are: bloggers.
平台域名会锁住你的历史内容，独立性需要自己掌握归档。
只要还困在 Substack 的域名下，就谈不上真正“独立”。你可以导出订阅名单，也许能让一部分人跟着你迁移到别的通讯平台，但过去那些邮件的链接会永远留在他们的域名上。Substack 一直说“最终”会支持用自己的域名，却没有明确时间表，也没给出不一开始就支持的理由。
Kye查看英文原文
They're not really independent as long as they're stuck on Substack's domain. You can export your list and maybe get some % to move to another newsletter host, but any links to past newsletters will forever be on their domain. Substack keeps saying "eventually" on using your own, but with no clear timeline or real justification for not launching with it. Same reason I won't touch Hey.
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