Substack pitches brands on long-form creator trust as ads formalise

Substack is building out a formal brand partnerships operation, betting that the depth and trust of its writers command something social feeds cannot. "For those marketers who think of Substack still as a newsletter, it's actually much broader than that," GM of brand partnerships Dan Robbins told Beet.TV. "It includes audio podcasts, live video, group chat, in-person events, notes in feed." The timing is deliberate: IAB projects US creator ad spend hitting $44 billion in 2026, and Substack's June native sponsorships push launched with Yahoo, Uber, T-Mobile and Balenciaga investing millions. The pitch rests on durability, the argument that subscription businesses outlast algorithm-driven creator careers. The open risk is the one Robbins names himself: that advertising erodes the very trust that makes Substack valuable, which is why the model is built around creator autonomy rather than platform-imposed ad loads.

The crux

Substack is trying to convert a subscriber-trust asset into an advertising business at the exact moment creator spend is formalising, and the bet is that trust and depth are worth more than reach and frequency.

Sell-side read

Newsletter and creator-native publishers are gaining a second revenue stream, sponsorships, layered on top of subscriptions, and the publishers with real subscriber trust are the ones brands want to buy depth from rather than impressions.

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Whether Substack can deliver enterprise-grade measurement that satisfies buyers used to programmatic reporting; Robbins did not disclose performance metrics.