Facebook is taking on Substack and other newsletter platforms with its own free tool, Bulletin.
Mark Zuckerberg announced Bulletin on Tuesday via the Facebook Live Audio Rooms, a set of publishing tools aimed at independent writers in the U.S.
Users of the Bulletin have their own independent website with a customizable name, logo, and color scheme and the ability to embed media into their posts and style them as desired. On the distribution side, the most exciting bit is integration with Facebook Pages. Facebook News writers will be able to distribute the work they do on the Bulletin.
In the audio call announcing the news, Zuckerberg said that his company wanted to support people who make a living doing creative work. The idea behind Bulletin is to elevate and support writers and creators already producing high-quality work…[I think Bulletin is] an excellent tool for writers and creators to have in their toolbox,” he said.
Initially, Facebook will roll out Bulletin only to a small group of creators. The complete list of writers participating at the launch includes Malcolm Gladwell, Jane Wells, Erin Andrews, and Adam Gran.
The look and feel of Bulletin are similar to Substack and Twitter-owned Revue, both popular platforms that let anyone start a paid newsletter. But unlike Substack and Revue, which take a small cut from subscriptions, Facebook won’t cut any revenue from Bulletin writers.
Facebook’s massive ecosystem of services and its vast pool of content can make handing over your precious data scary. Yet Facebook claims that writers will be able to move to different platforms in the future, and they will own both their content and subscriber lists.
You cannot currently sign up as a writer for Bulletin, but Facebook says it plans to add more users in the “coming weeks.”
