Social media newsletters analyse the platforms, their algorithms, their politics and the creators who live on them. Writers include former platform employees, researchers and marketers.
Media, marketing and creator economy are the neighbouring pages.
50 newsletters below, ranked by editorial quality and how recently they published.
Independent reporting and analysis on AI companies, social platforms, and the policy and legal forces shaping them. Issues combine news reporting with a clear authorial perspective and disclosed conflicts of interest.
Renée DiResta writes about online disinformation, foreign influence operations, platform moderation and the politics around counter-disinformation research. Issues combine first-hand accounts, document-based rebuttals and her own experiments, such as building an AI notewriter for Community Notes.
Media scholar Amanda Lotz shares research-based analysis of how people actually use and make media in the twenty-first century, drawing on interviews, surveys and her published work. Readers get evidence-led challenges to conventional thinking about social media, streaming and the media industries.
Weekly essays on technology and culture, covering AI safety, social media platforms and the nature of human versus machine minds. The author, a veteran journalist, offers personal, opinionated analysis drawing on long experience with the tech industry.
A weekly Italian newsletter with data, analysis and real-world cases on online content, platforms and the creator economy. Issues mix the author's personal reflections, creator interviews and masterclass takeaways, and practical lessons on content production.
Adam Tinworth writes about digital journalism, audience strategy and the creator economy, mixing curated commentary with first-hand analysis. Readers get an informed view of platform shifts, SEO and the rise of creator journalists from an experienced trainer and journalism lecturer.
A weekly newsletter from Jon Haidt and his team examining how smartphones, social media, and AI are reshaping childhood and society. It combines research updates, commentary on tech accountability, and practical guidance for parents, educators, and policymakers.
Bookmark publishes data-driven reports on what creators and growing businesses actually do, such as button copy on signup pages, creator bio grammar and LinkedIn featured sections. Each report explains its sample and coding method and ends with experiments readers can try.
Komando est une newsletter francophone qui décortique des formats, campagnes et activations marketing créatifs dont les marques peuvent s'inspirer. Chaque numéro mêle analyse d'exemples concrets, réflexion éditoriale et idées réplicables, avec une moitié du contenu réservée aux abonnés payants.
A personal blog of essays about the internet, technology and online culture, written in a first-person voice. Recent issues cover AI's effect on white-collar work, differences between TikTok and Reels recommendation algorithms, and cynicism in media.
Practical marketing advice for specialty coffee businesses, drawing on the author's 20 years in B2C and B2B marketing and on data from the People's Choice Coffee Awards. Issues combine cited research with concrete recommendations on topics such as customer votes, AI's effect on websites, and social media performance.
Essays on internet culture, online subcultures and AI-generated media, mixing first-person reporting with cultural analysis. Readers get original interpretive takes on phenomena like lolcows, AI fruit videos and the media's appetite for weird subcultures.
A personal newsletter by Devin Gaffney, founder of Graze, on custom algorithmic feeds, Bluesky and decentralized social media. Issues cover the Graze acquisition by Flipboard, the argument for expert-curated feeds over central ranking, and the case for feeds as a way out of Web 2.0's problems.
Personal cultural essays that examine performance, personas and the idea of authenticity through topics like online dating discourse, work and time, and fandom. Each piece mixes first-person voice with references to theory, books and social media trends.
A personal essay newsletter by Jeremy Gordon covering basketball nostalgia, illness and grief, and his years as a Pitchfork news writer watching Twitter. Readers get reflective, anecdotal writing that blends sports fandom with memoir and media-culture commentary.
A technologist's personal newsletter mixing essays on social network mechanics, decentralised protocols like Bluesky's AT Protocol, and the cognitive costs of AI coding assistants. Readers get analytical, citation-flavoured explanations of how systems behave, with a thoughtful, slightly playful voice.
Baihua Media's newsletter accompanies its Chinese-language podcasts, with cultural commentary on Chinese and American internet culture, memes, and Gen Z attitudes. Readers get conversational, host-written essays and context on shows like CyberPink, plus updates on the podcast incubator behind them.
Hotpot is a personal newsletter by Andrea Brena that examines how technology shapes behavior, covering topics like music ownership versus streaming, digital presence, and overtourism driven by social media and mapping apps. Readers get reflective essays that connect everyday experiences to broader questions about convenience, visibility and place.
The Prism is a Substack by Gurwinder examining how digital life, social media and AI-generated content affect attention, truth, mental health and personal agency. Readers get concise conceptual frameworks, essays on time and attention, and a long correspondence on automation and alienation.
Chris Messina, inventor of the hashtag and former Product Hunt insider, writes about post-LLM software economics, the future of social platforms like Bluesky and hashtags, and personal reflections on digital identity. The issues mix sharp personal essays with some promotional framing around his fund and launch advice.
A personal blog by an artist and writer covering pen-and-ink illustration, the upkeep of a WordPress migration, and reflections on social media and blogging culture. Readers get a candid, first-person look at a working illustrator's process and long-form musings on how the web has changed.
margin.notes is an essay-driven newsletter on design, technology and culture, with reflections on how apps, attention and money shape everyday life. Issues read as personal, critical pieces that combine anecdote with sharp observations about platform design and economic incentives.
Short Tails is a data-driven newsletter that uses public and scraped datasets to answer specific questions, such as how subreddits cluster by user overlap, how terrorism trends have changed since 1970, and which colleges give the best earnings-to-debt return. Each issue walks through the method, shows the charts, and draws out what the numbers do and do not say.
A satirical newsletter that parodies content-creator hustle culture, AI-driven algorithm hacks and predatory course funnels through a naive narrator stuck in 'Debtor's Prison'. Readers get dark-humored fiction in the voice of an overeager aspiring creator and a fictional company, Mustics™.
Oliphonic is a personal newsletter offering a non-doom, first-person take on AI, covering practical and curious angles such as AI's water use, a humorous PhD-writing experiment, and AI-generated influencers. Readers get an accessible, opinionated look at how AI intersects with technology, academia and online culture.
A hotel marketing newsletter that explains how AI assistants, AI agents and social platform algorithms affect hotel and resort bookings. It combines cited research and platform announcements with practical advice for hotel marketers.
A practical newsletter from the Brazilian crowdfunding platform APOIA.se aimed at independent creators, covering how to fund creative work through community support. Issues mix platform-change analysis with editorial pieces on podcasts, comics and the creator economy.
A weekly briefing on luxury, beauty and fashion marketing, mixing a short editorial note with data on brand social media performance. Recent issues cover seasonal campaigns, top-performing brands by views, and paid special reports on ingredients and celebrity endorsements.
NewsGuard's Reality Check is a daily-style report tracking viral false claims, deepfakes and misinformation, with examples such as a Russian deepfake targeting a Texas Senate candidate and X's failure to flag midterm election falsehoods. It explains how the claims spread, which AI tools repeat them, and who is amplifying them.
A growth marketing agency's newsletter that combines biweekly deep dives on brand campaigns and platform shifts with a weekly digest of marketing and culture news. Readers get commentary on trends such as algorithm controls, branded entertainment and creator deals.
Official Substack newsletter covering product launches, creator monetization features, and community-building strategies for people publishing on the platform. It includes creator interviews and announcements such as podcast sponsorships and feed controls.
A consultancy newsletter on narrative vertical video, analysing media launches and creator strategies for clients. Readers get commentary on what legacy journalists' creator ventures reveal about audience-building, plus occasional tool and platform updates.
A working social media manager shares practical and reflective takes on platform algorithms, brand strategy and content creation, including guides on remixing past hits and expert interviews. Readers get tactical advice on posting, Instagram updates and how to stay distinctive as feeds homogenize.
A newsletter by tech and media critic Karl Bode that attacks corporate press coverage of tech billionaires and U.S. politics. Each issue is a long opinion essay with links to sources and a strongly partisan point of view.
A short, personal Portuguese-language newsletter with reflections on creativity, managing multiple interests and creating content on social media. Each issue pairs a small idea, such as survivorship bias or a project timeline, with practical suggestions.
A solo marketer writes about navigating online marketing and Big Tech while holding progressive values, covering topics like forced AI features in software and building sustainable business habits. Readers get candid, personal takes on tool choices, social media practice and critiques of tech company behaviour.
The Catch critiques Canadian news media coverage from an anti-capitalist perspective, mixing written media criticism with podcast interviews of journalists and authors. Issues include sourced analysis of coverage of Palestine activism, Alberta politics and social media's role in news.
A newsletter from vintage expert and author Virginia Chamlee covering secondhand shopping finds, notable vintage objects, and travel destinations, with occasional behind-the-scenes posts on building a creator business. Readers get curated shopping roundups, personal style notes and practical advice drawn from her experience.
A weekly personal newsletter mixing memoir and practical insight on thinking, writing, productivity and social media habits. Each issue builds a single idea out of the author's own experiences, such as a PhD rejection, interior design scrolling and working with fewer decisions.
A personal, essay-style newsletter by Katherine that mixes cultural criticism of internet culture with notes on the writer's own life. Issues range from analysis of the NHL's BookTok marketing push to reflections on orality, voice interfaces and Walter Ong's work.
A newsletter that explores science, curiosity and wonder through essays and stories meant to inspire awe and hope. Recent issues mix playful, essayistic writing with series on good conversations and behind-the-scenes notes on running a newsletter.
Updates from a worker-owned collective building privacy and anti-surveillance tools such as OnionShare and Cyd, including release notes and event write-ups. Readers get practical details on new features, how the tools work, and the collective's thinking on data ownership.
Readymag's blog offers design-focused essays and interviews with designers and creative directors on creative practice, reference culture and social media's influence on design. Readers get industry perspectives, practical insight and product-related tutorials for working designers.
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