The recent growth of start-ups like Substack and Revue has renewed interest in newsletters.
Facebook debuted a newsletter subscription service on Tuesday, an attempt to court influential writers to its platform as more creators branch out from traditional publications and go independent. To jump-start the service, called Bulletin, Facebook spent months recruiting dozens of writers across different categories — including sports, entertainment, science and health — paying them upfront to bring their readers to Facebook’s platform. The writers include the New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell, the author Mitch Albom, and the organizational psychologist Adam Grant. Facebook plans to expand the program and partner with more writers over time. “The goal here is to support millions of people doing creative work,” Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, said in a conference call with reporters.
