Substack Writer + Growth Partner — Daily News Publication (Launching From Zero)

I run a news and current-events channel in short-form video with a large existing audience of over 2.6M. I'm launching a Substack and I want one person to own it: write the posts and run the growth side of the platform. I'll handle promotion. I'll point my audience at it constantly — that part is covered. What I need is someone who makes the publication itself worth subscribing to, and who knows how Substack's own machinery works, because I don't. What you'd do Turn the news stories I'm already covering into posts that people on Substack actually want to read — not video scripts pasted into an email Run the on-platform growth: Notes, the recommendation network, headline and subject-line testing, post timing, the in-app feed Set up and run the paid side — you tell me what belongs behind the paywall and when to turn it on Own the publishing rhythm. Starting a few posts a week; this can scale to daily and become a full-time role for the right person Who this is for You live in the news and current-events space. You have opinions about how a story should open. You've grown at least one Substack from a small number to a real one, and you can show me the numbers. Who this is not for Generalist content writers, SEO blog writers, and anyone whose Substack experience is "I've written newsletters before." Substack is its own ecosystem with its own algorithm, and I'm hiring for that specifically. Samples I need Send links, not descriptions. I want to see two different things: Organic growth work — posts or Notes that pulled in free subscribers on-platform, with the numbers behind them Paid conversion work — a paywalled post, a paywall-turn-on moment, or a free post that drove paid upgrades, and what it converted at If the work was under an NDA or for a publication you can't name, tell me what you can and we'll talk. Rate I've left the budget open on purpose. Name your own rate and the structure you prefer — per post, weekly retainer, or hourly. Tell me what volume that buys me. I'd rather pay well for someone who knows this platform than run a cheap experiment. Answer these in your proposal — proposals without answers get skipped Link 2–3 Substacks you've written for or grown. For each: subscriber count when you started, count now, over what time period, and what percentage went paid. My audience is coming from short-form video. What do you do differently converting a video audience into readers, versus an audience that already reads newsletters? What's the single biggest lever you'd pull in the first 30 days on a brand-new news Substack starting from zero — and why that one over the obvious alternatives? For a daily news publication, what belongs behind the paywall, and at what point would you turn paid on? How many posts per week can you commit to, and what's your rate and structure?