Facebook unveils its own newsletter platform Bulletin

Facebook announced its own newsletter platform on Tuesday. Bulletin lets writers create and send newsletters to subscribers. For the time being, Facebook will not ask for money from writers who publish via Bulletin.

With Bulletin, Facebook wants to compete with Substack. Through Substack, writers can charge their followers for their newsletters. Substack receives a share of the proceeds. Facebook seems to have a different revenue model in mind, because it currently does not write a fee. It is not clear whether this will remain so.

In an interview with The Verge, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said Bulletin should enable independent writers to showcase their work to a wider audience. The company has recruited a number of writers for the service’s release, including Malcolm Gladwell, Tan France and Erin Andrews. The writers who are the first to join Bulletin are mainly from the US.

At this time, writers cannot sign up for Bulletin themselves, as the service is still in beta. Only a select number of writers are admitted at this time. Ultimately, it should be possible for writers to sign up to the service and start a newsletter.