Paid Newsletter

Paid newsletters sell access to the writing itself. Substack, Beehiiv, Ghost and their competitors handle the billing, the paywall and the member list, taking either a cut of revenue or a flat monthly fee.

The usual shape is a free list anyone can join and a paid tier that adds something beyond it: extra issues, the archive, a members' discussion. Writers who launch straight into a paid-only product often stall, because a stranger has nothing to read before deciding.