# The State of Substack for PR

- **Issued by:** [Featured](https://www.helpareporter.com/news-releases/featured)
- **Published:** Oct 29, 2026, 11:15 PM UTC
- **Category:** [Research](https://www.helpareporter.com/news-releases/research)
- **Topics:** Research
- **Web page:** https://www.helpareporter.com/news-releases/the-state-of-substack-for-pr-2
- **Original source:** https://press.featured.com/research/the-state-of-substack-for-pr/

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### Original research · Find Substacks database

_Data from Featured's Find Substacks database of 38,746 Substack publications. October 2026._

_Based on 38,746 Substack publications, October 2026 · 12 min read_

-   **90.8%** Have Substack DMs open (35,198 of 38,746 publications)
-   **4,000** Median free subscribers (Across 35,654 publications with a recorded count)
-   **481.9M** Combined free subscriber count (Sum across all publications, not unique readers)

## Reachability: nine in ten writers take direct messages

Substack direct messages are the primary route to a newsletter writer, and 35,198 publications (90.8%) have them open. Counting linked social accounts as a second channel, 37,314 publications (96.3%) can be reached by DM or at least one social account, leaving only 1,432 (3.7%) with neither. Reachability holds at the top of the market too: of the 9,481 publications with 10,000 or more subscribers, 89.4% have DMs open.

![Reachability by channel · Share of all 38,746 publications; a publication can appear on more than one row. · Substack DMs open: 90.8% · At least one social account: 77.7% · Two or more social accounts: 48.4% · Instagram linked: 46.5% · X linked: 43.5% · LinkedIn linked: 27.9% · YouTube linked: 23.8% · Custom domain: 16.0% · Source: Featured, Find Substacks database (38,746 publications), analysis dated October 2026.](https://haro-com-images.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/newswire/images/060e4811ded399def801e5b0254f265aaf772793.webp)

### Figure 2. Publications by free subscriber tier (cumulative thresholds)

Free subscribers

Publications

Share of database

1,000 or more

35,654

92.0%

5,000 or more

16,156

41.7%

10,000 or more

9,481

24.5%

25,000 or more

3,904

10.1%

50,000 or more

1,784

4.6%

100,000 or more

733

1.9%

250,000 or more

195

0.5%

500,000 or more

50

0.1%

1,000,000 or more

10

0.0%

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Distributed by [HARO Newswire](https://www.helpareporter.com/news-releases).