🚨 Project C is moving to beehiiv!
If you aren't already a subscriber, do it over there!
Project C is moving to beehiiv. 🐝 Subscribers shouldn’t see any break in receiving the newsletter. You can expect new content once or twice every week, same as it ever was – just look for me coming from a different email address starting Monday, Jan. 13th. The full Project C archive has also been ported over. If you’re a paid subscriber, your paid sub has also been moved, too. Let me know if you see any hiccups at liz@projectc.biz. - Liz
I launched Project C in May 2024 with a loose plan to write about creator-model journalism when I had time. It was literally something I decided one week and launched the next. (Not the usual, deliberate process I recommend to the creators I talk to pre-launch, but also sometimes it’s just how it goes. #DIY)
I was spending most of my time learning as much as I could about what I see as the most exciting space in journalism. I wanted to pass along all the amazing work coming from independent creator journalists all over the world, help those creators (and those looking to make the transition) to find resources and best practices and, finally, to start normalizing creator journalism as a part of a long tradition of this work supporting democracy. I was finding and curating all that anyway, so why not share?
Ten months later, this little newsletter has grown into the hub around which I’ve organized my work. It’s led to countless crucial conversations, opportunities to collaborate, research and the chance to work with journalists at many points along the journey to independence.
I launched on Substack because it was easy, but as Project C has become less of a hobby and more of my own creator journalism thing it’s time to move to a more robust platform. That’s why I’m relocating to beehiv 🐝. It’s a fabulous platform that is centering writers in their dev process and providing more opportunities for us to have a real chance of making a living in this work.
If you’re contemplating a launch or a move, here’s some food for thought:
Substack was a solid home for my first 10 months. The referral network really is a valuable discovery tool for quickly growing your audience. One thing I found, though, was that a lot of that referral growth is a hallucination – especially for niche publications like Project C. When someone subscribes to a Substack they do want to read, the new reader is prompted to follow that writer’s recommendations and it’s a little confusing how to not follow those recs. When the new reader starts suddenly receiving three additional weekly newsletters they didn’t necessarily want, they unsubscribe. So while Project C grew steadily on Substack over the past 10 months, the bulk of that growth was not from the referral network, but from word of mouth and others linking to Project C elsewhere.
Monetization is squarely focused on subscriptions here at Substack. For Project C, that’s been a challenge. I want to make money writing this newsletter because that’s what allows me to write this newsletter, but I’m committed to keeping all Project C content free for everyone since most people at the inflection point of deciding whether to launch a solo-preneur career don’t have a lot of extra cash sititng around. Gatekeeping that information is antithetical to the whole point of Project C. Beehiiv does offer some advertising options – which I haven’t played with yet, but am eager to. It may not be a perfect solution, but it’s an option I don’t have here.
Over at Journalists Pay Themselves, Lex Roman has a comparison of the top newsletter platforms in her Should I Leave Substack? post. As Lex adds, the process of leaving Substack has also been documented by Ty Burr, Casey Newton, Nathan Tankus and Ryan Broderick.
Dan Oshinsky shares the eight questions you should ask to help identify the right email tool for your newsletter.
Beehiiv is launching it’s first Media Collective program to support journalists making the leap to independence with resources like health insurance, legal support, access to Getty Images and more.
How to migrate from Substack to beehiiv. Def a good idea to know what you’re getting into before you commit.
See you in your inboxes Monday.
REMINDER: Project C is moving to beehiiv. 🐝 Subscribers shouldn’t see any break in receiving the newsletter. You can expect new content once or twice every week, same as it ever was – just look for me coming from a different email address starting Monday, Jan. 13th. The full Project C archive has also been ported over. If you’re a paid subscriber, your paid sub has also been ported over. Let me know if you see any hiccups at liz@projectc.biz. - Liz