Opening the Catalan way on Substack, the platform for those who like to read
Allows creating long articles and newsletters for subscribers, it already dominates the Anglo-Saxon world and adds Catalan as one of the 15 languages with automatic translation
Barcelona"I've deleted Tinder and Instagram and downloaded Substack #summer," I read in a post. Substack is a platform that, indeed, takes time. The posts uploaded there, which are also sent as an email newsletter to subscribers, are sheets full of information, references, and data, especially if they are paid. And since it increasingly contains a more extensive and diverse offer, your linked readings and emails multiplyto the inbox. "I'm joining Substack because I missed blogs. It's the network for those looking for a new space, more room, less noise, less of the turbo-fascist companies that have taken over and conditioned our way of interacting on X, Instagram, and Facebook," says writer and humorist Maria Rovira.
Since its founding in San Francisco in 2017, Substack has become the most popular platform to create long-form content and to access independent and specialized information on current affairs, culture, technology, finance, and media. Hundreds of professors and analysts from the Anglo-Saxon world, and great cultural figures (from George Saunders to Patti Smith, Pamela Anderson, Ottessa Moshfegh, or Miranda July), have found in this channel a way to address their community directly, often through texts that have a stylistic ambition or, at least, personality. Here authors do not depend on the demand of the clickbait of Google Discover, nor are they victims of X's wild algorithm, nor of TikTok's fragmentation. And above all: authors can monetize their knowledge and talent through direct reader subscriptions (which are generally low, from 5 to 15 euros per month). There are more than 60 authors who bill more than one million euros, according to Substack. Major traditional media companies have moved there and so have bestselling essayists: one of the latest additions is Naomi Klein.
For Substack fans, here's the buzz of constructive debate, AI-free writing, direct author-subscriber relationships, and the possibility of making money. "I imagine this space as a combination of a big roundtable, the conversation after a talk (which is at least as good as the talk itself), and a highly participatory seminar," Klein writes in the inaugural post. He started posting free content, but will charge 6 euros. He gained 60,000 subscribers in two weeks. Do the math.
"The big appeal is that it gives us writers total control over the content – explains the economist, professor, and columnist for Kapital, Joan Tubau, with 22,000 subscribers—. With Substack, I reach my reader directly. It's a model that threatens newspapers. As a reader, I find that information is a commodity and I want to pay for quality analysis and opinion, and for some reports by journalists eager to find a good story. Substack gives all these professionals the opportunity to generate a business model outside the newspaper structure. It's a winner-takes-all model. What we're already seeing is (a few) millionaire journalists and many who will be replaced by AI," Tubau predicts.
An expansion, also linguistic
Figures in the English-speaking world continue to rise and validate the business model –Substack has 5 million paying subscribers, from whom the platform takes 10%–, to the point where some predict the end of traditional media (which, incidentally, have also entered Substack). In Europe, however, the platform's popularity has been slower and more uneven, either because there is more linguistic diversity, or because there is less of a subscription culture. Many of the authors are amateurs or professionals who use it only as a free showcase for their work and to maintain contact with their community. In sectors such as technology and finance, however, exclusive content is offered in Spanish at a price ranging from 300 to 600 euros per month.
Aware that it can be exploited, in February 2026 Substack opened offices in nine new European countries. "In Europe, 90 million euros have been generated in the first quarter alone from direct subscriptions, and in Spain we are already more than 150,000 paying subscribers," Marcos García, the platform's first manager in the country, tells ARA. The platform is in the top 5 countries where it is growing the most. Furthermore, since July, Substack has incorporated integrated translation for fifteen languages, including Catalan. That is, thanks to AI translation, all the platform's content can be read in Catalan, and original content in Catalan (and 100 more languages) can be read in English, similar to what has happened on X. The interface is also in Catalan.
"Without a doubt, what is local is the best window to offer something unique, we see it in music," says García, surely thinking of Bad Bunny. For him, the key to success on Substack is "what you have to explain, your voice, your unique perspective, your knowledge about a certain topic, or your original opinion on certain issues," he affirms, and gives the intimate articles of Rosalía as an example. Substack allows you to create articles, podcasts, videos, live chats, and feed a wall with notes – one of the reasons for the open war with X and the complaints about the use of soft algorithms – but what matters is what is said, not the design. "It's a platform for sharing niche content, but with a few readers who are willing to pay. The most read blogs on Substack are super specific," explains Tubau, citing the long tail strategy (minority products can add up to more than bestsellers if they are united in a large distribution channel).
Return the long format
In recent years, we have turned our digital experience into an endless race marked by scrolling, rapid consumption, the need to feed an algorithm that we see as a necessary evil, and a battle for the misnamed economy of attention. They have wanted to convince us that the important thing is to say it short and fast and generate constant noise. And that vanity metrics (likes, followers, number of views, etc.) are what value our way of being on the internet. But we have forgotten something very simple: that the qualitative experience we had on the internet served us to discover, learn, and connect with each other. There is another way to learn, get informed, and enjoy in a calmer and deeper way," assures the head of Substack in Spain.
Substack is not conceived strictly as a social network, but rather as the evolution of blogs from the 2000s. "For me, it's like recovering the internet of the past, but with a much simpler and better-resolved management of subscribers and fees. I believe that newsletters have a great future," explains the ARA technologist Albert Cuesta who, now that he can live his life in Catalan, will launch himself to exploit the platform's potential, will implement a paywall, and will create other thematic communities there.
"Substack right now is my base of operations, it performs many functions and they all favor my will to earn a living as a writer – says cook and writer Maria Nicolau, who has 4,700 subscribers, quite an achievement in Catalan–. It is the space where I have direct dialogue with my audience, where I am master and mistress of what I say, without intermediaries. Working in a major media outlet, like TV3 or El País [where she collaborates], gives you a great reach, but your voice is constrained by a style guide, an algorithm, an editorial line or by the mental framework of the person following that particular medium. On Substack you define your editorial line. You can afford to take more risks, be less normative, scratch the margins, which interests me. Furthermore, I have this traditional view of thinking that practice leads to mastery. Every day I write and I publish it raw," explains Nicolau. Some of her 700 articles have ended up becoming columns, sections or chapters, and it is a process that she also gifts to her subscribers. With Substack she keeps them informed of her agenda and her reflections and can monetize the content to continue "being a free voice". "For someone to want to pay what some potatoes and olives would cost in a bar, you have to offer something worthwhile," Nicolau states.
You don't need huge subscriber numbers on Substack to make a living, but it's not easy to get and keep paying subscribers. In fact, in Catalan, it's still unusual; in Spanish or English, writers like Milena Busquets and Kilian Jornet, or Isabel Coixet and Leticia Sala, are active. "You go to Esclat to shop, and nobody knows what Substack is," admits chef Maria Nicolau. Often, a community is built on other platforms and then brought over to Substack, although the platform itself has a quite useful recommendation system among followers. Users still feel like they're in the early days of Twitter, in a warm and welcoming environment. "Or Tumblr – Nicolau corrects –. It's a very intimate vibe. Here, people bare themselves very quickly, and so far, the hate hasn't arrived. I've discovered many voices from another generation that I was missing, and it's like seeing the birth of a new galaxy. It's very stimulating. On other networks, these voices get dissolved in the background noise," says the writer, citing Maria Rovira (Oye Sherman), Ofèlia Carbonell, and Andrea Gumes."I think Substack will have the future of all social networks, which keep repeating the same cycle, faster each time: discovery, creativity-innocence-happiness, popularization, standardization, entry of advertising, large corporations, far-right, and general disillusionment and abandonment," states Maria Rovira. She is still in the infatuation stage with the platform: "I like that people who want to can receive me in their inboxes; for me, the plus of the format is that. It also serves as a diary or a public idea notebook," she explains. It was an escape route while she was writing her first book, Garlanda, and it showed her that there were people interested in what she was doing.The Catalan Substack is dominated by the literary community, because they have been following Anglo-Saxon accounts for years and because the blank page is ideal for those with a literary vocation. There are writers and journalists like Anna Pazos, Mar Vallverdú, Rita Roig, Ada Klein, and Maria Climent, and profiles from the sector like La Llama, La Calders, Marta Cava, Saldonar, Les Hores, Indòmita, and Raig Verd. There are also politicians and commentators, such as Jordi Graupera or el Tro de Ponent. Professionals from the economic sector, Albert Campi and Teodor de Mas; personalities from the technological field like Genís Roca and Albert Cuesta; and cultural figures, from Joan Pons writing about Un disc per cada any de la teva vida to audiovisual critic Toni de la Torre. There are also more specific accounts, like La Guingueta, which collects job and scholarship opportunities, or the Menorcan Marina Ribas offering recipes and ideas. The new rankings created by Substack do not allow for discrimination by language or region, but by topic and status, but it is clear that most Catalan accounts still have very few followers to be profitable. We will see if content creators, with the platform's new potential, find their own way to be influential in this world without giving up Catalan.