In August 1991, when websites were still in their infancy, the New York Times reported on an experiment underway in the United States: various news sheets were faxed on a regular basis to those who asked to read them. They were offshoots of large newspapers or local initiatives of small entrepreneurs, created to provide more timely updates than daily newspapers, to be distributed quickly abroad or to delve into specific topics in detail. Some supported themselves with advertising placed at the bottom of the texts, others cost a few dollars a month.
Thirty-five years later, the means of diffusion has changed, not the substance: the fax has been replaced by e-mail, the sheets are not printed by a machine but scroll on a screen, but they continue to reach those who decide to subscribe to receive them, free or for a fee. And anyone, if he wants, can become an author and write his own dispatch. Provided, of course, that you find someone who has the desire and patience to read it.
Despite having roots in the prehistory of the Internet, these digital bulletins, the newsletters, are currently experiencing a golden moment: Substack, the most used platform for distributing them via email, founded in 2017, has exceeded the threshold of 50 million subscriptions. Among these, in the first quarter of 2026, approximately 8.4 million were paid: they stopped at 2 million in 2023, at 5 at the beginning of 2025.
A similar path was taken by a well-known face in Italian information: Selvaggia Lucarelli, with his newsletter Vale tutto, went from 141 thousand subscribers last year to around 230 thousand currently. Over 10 thousand people have chosen to pay 7 euros a month or 70 a year (for the most involved, there is also the “supporter” option of 200 euros), which have returned the commentator, for 2025 alone, almost 1.8 million euros.
Lucarelli’s is a case of global significance: it reached first place in the world on Substack as best seller in the “culture” category (the three of which are “health”, “technology” but also “faith and spirituality” or “home and garden”). For example, she beat Pamela Anderson, only fourth in the “philosophy” section: yes, the former lifeguard from Baywatch, instead of gushing physicality on the coast, now dispenses pearls of wisdom. For 5 euros a month, in addition to peeking into her bit diary, you can listen to her as she articulates her thoughts.
«It’s a return to the future, to an era before social media. Email is a resilient medium, everyone uses it, both students and workers. It is an orderly, clean channel that lends itself to in-depth analysis”, reasons Francesco Oggiano, author of the newsletter on communication and innovation Digital journalism, which with its 36 thousand subscribers is among the most read in Italy. «In the current information chaos, there is a need for points of reference that put things in order».
E-mail moves in a different area than shared arenas, it touches other chords: it brings us back to digital intimacy, it pertains to the private sphere. The newsletter is inserted between bank and office messages, it is part of a less chaotic flow than Facebook, TikTok or Instagram. «And it doesn’t disappear, it’s not a story that lasts 24 hours and risks escaping, disappearing. You can put it aside and read at any time, at your own pace. Even though it is a digital product, it has an analogue feel”, observes Vincenzo Cosenza, innovation expert. His Vincos has 12 thousand members.
In Italy the numbers are still low compared to those of American authors who, by writing in English, have the advantage of reaching very large audiences. And, by extension, they develop the courage to make radical choices.
At the end of 2024, the Nobel Prize winner for economics Paul Krugman, a columnist for the New York Times, decided to interrupt his historic collaboration with the newspaper to open an independent newsletter. Today it has a few tens of thousands of people who pay 7 dollars a month: a decidedly attractive salary. The US newspaper nevertheless bore the loss without suffering: it maintains the morning news newsletter The Morning, which is the most read in the world with 16 million subscribers. Over two thirds are users who do not subscribe to the newspaper, therefore a vast pool of potential customers to be tempted with assorted promotions.
Krugman was preceded by Casey Newton, who left the famous innovation site The Verge to write Platformer, now a full-time job: he talks about Silicon Valley, churns out several scoops, comes out three times a week and costs ten dollars a month. In Italy a similar case is that of Stefano Feltri who, after leaving the management of the newspaper Domani, edits the Appunti newsletter (subscription costs 5 euros a month).
In the age of artificial intelligence, which flattens language and produces cookie-cutter information, newsletters give the advantage of being able to follow specific topics through the filter and perspective of a voice deemed authoritative. It’s a sort of OnlyFans of thought, except that instead of spending money on erotic content you pay to let your neurons be seduced. With a more direct line than social networks: «Many people write to me directly responding to the weekly mailings», says Oggiano. «Readers suggest topics to cover, pay compliments or point out typos in a very polite way. It’s a tiptoeing interaction, never toxic. Not like on Facebook where you put the emoji or the swear word and you go away.”
However demonized, social media is essential for promoting oneself. Without his million and a half followers on Instagram, Selvaggia Lucarelli would not have reached certain numbers with his newsletter. It is no coincidence that the first content set in the profile grid describes what Worth Everything is and how to subscribe. Of course, it’s not an infallible rule: Simona Ventura, who has 1.7 million followers on Instagram, is stuck at a thousand subscribers on Substack with her newsletter, opened because “important things” she explained “can’t be said in 30 seconds”.
In general, enthusiasm must be tempered with caution. It is unlikely to imagine a scenario in which, alongside the license fee for music streaming and TV series catalogues, we will pay a fee for various newsletters. «It’s true that the reader can feel like a publisher, but he has limited resources», agrees Cosenza.
«It’s a tool that works to keep a community alive. For example, I offer training courses.” Lucarelli, on the other hand, opts for very direct marketing to tickle the curiosity of those who peek at the free version of its contents: “Why don’t you subscribe too?” writes. “It costs little more than a pack of cigarettes a month, but it hurts much less (although some news can cause quite a bit of heartburn).”
The same annoyance that is spreading among various companies, not exactly happy to give a slice of their typing revenue to Substack, which retains a flat 10 percent of their revenue. Some have moved to Beehiiv which, as the Reuters agency notes, aims to double its turnover this year. It leaves every penny of the subscriptions in the pockets of the writer and increases their earnings by offering readers ads consistent with each content. But the authors are free to accept or reject an announcement, avoiding those they consider out of focus.
Beehiiv is worth more than 200 million dollars (Substack exceeds one billion) and has attracted big names such as Time, which last year moved its 13 newsletters followed by 2 million people to the platform. Because, as long as a sustainable growth model is developed for those who produce and consume them, these channels can be a non-peripheral piece of the future of information: in place of the fax, in addition to websites, there are aggregators that are responsible for distributing the news, promoting it, making it profitable.
Newsletters maintain integrity by going beyond the social stew. They build reader loyalty because they talk to everyone about what interests them. Letting You Control: The freedom to change your mind and unsubscribe. Or confine yet another annoying email to the spam folder.
