Facebook Is Launching an Attempt to Crush Substack

Continuing its ongoing efforts to clone every single other digital service available, Facebook announced on Tuesday that it would be rolling out its own version of a newsletter subscription service called Bulletin. The new Facebook offering is an attempt to crush the popular newsletter service Substack.

CNET reports that Facebook announced this week that it is rolling out a new service called Bulletin that will allow writers to create and share free and subscription-based newsletters, a very similar service to that offered by popular newsletter service Substack.

Bulletin will reportedly launch with a small group of writers with plans to add more. The release of a newsletter product shows that Facebook is ramping up its efforts to attract more creators to its site, a move that could in turn help the company attract more users to its platform and convince them to spend more time on the social network.

Twitter also acquired a newsletter product called Revue this year, while Substack has been popular amongst journalists and writers for some time.

In a live audio chat on Facebook discussing Bulletin, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated: “The goal here across the company is to support eventually millions of people making a living doing creative work.”

Bulleting writers will be able to keep all of their subscription revenue and keep ownership of their content and email subscribers if they move to another platform, Zuckerberg said. They’ll also be eligible for distribution in Facebook News. The company plans to include tools allowing writers to pair audio with their written work.

Facebook has managed to convince a number of best-selling and high-profile writers to join Bulleting for its launch including Malcolm Gladwell, American sportscaster Erin Andrews, author Mitch Albom and “Queer Eye” star Tan France.

Facebook recently launched an attempt to crush voice chat upstart Clubhouse.