# The State of Substack for PR

- **Issued by:** [Featured](https://www.helpareporter.com/news-releases/featured)
- **Published:** Oct 19, 2026, 7:55 PM UTC
- **Category:** [Research reports](https://www.helpareporter.com/news-releases/research-reports)
- **Topics:** Research reports
- **Web page:** https://www.helpareporter.com/news-releases/the-state-of-substack-for-pr
- **Original source:** https://featured.com/press/research/the-state-of-substack-for-pr

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### Original research · Find Substacks database

## The State of Substack for PR

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

**Based on 38,746 Substack publications, October 2026**

-   **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

-   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%**

Share of all 38,746 publications; a publication can appear on more than one row.

### 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).