Top Quotes by Casey Newton
Looking to grow your Substack newletter? Here are insightful quotes from Casey Newton.
Casey Newton runs the Platformer newsletter. I think it’s safe to say he has had some success with his newsletter.
In this piece, I compile a couple of quotes from Newton’s writing.
On Helping Independent Journalists
Newton started the Platformer in September 2020. In an article outlining the reasons why he quit Verge, he also said that he would spend two hours a week working with other independent journalists.
As excited as I am to build Platformer, I know that white people — and white men, in particular are overrepresented in the paid newsletter industry. For reader-supported journalism to have the impact I believe it can on the world, it needs to become much more inclusive. That’s why I’m committing to spending at least two hours a week working with other independent journalists who have started down a similar path, or would like to.
On Reading for Better Writing
There’s so much content on the internet, Newton argues. And I believe that Newton says that for a writer to create better content, they have to read and be able to turn that reading into writing for their readers.
Doing the reading turns out to be a superpower that you can have as a writer, because you will find that most people are not doing the reading – at most, they're scanning the headlines. Reading gives you a superpower, because you'll suddenly find that you are much more knowledgeable about the subject than you even had been before, even if this had been a point of passion for you.
Fair enough. Writers should read, but I have a question for Newton: who’s scanning the headlines?
On People Hating Interviews
As writers, or content creators, we tend to think that interviews with famous people will go viral. I guess they do sometimes, but according to Newton, this has not been his experience.
In his article ‘What I learned From A Year On Substack’, Newton says that one of the things he found out was people hated interview content.
Over the past year I’ve brought you news-making interviews with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Twitch COO Sara Clemens, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, and WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart, among others. Because I write a publication closely associated with the tech industry, and social networks more specifically, it feels important to regularly ask questions of the people running those networks. What I’ve learned, though, is that almost no one becomes a paid subscriber because they liked an interview. (It’s possible my interviews are bad!)