Post, a social news-sharing app with a focus on publishers, supported by a16z, is expanding its presence by launching on Android and introducing new tools that simplify content sharing for creators. This move opens up additional monetization avenues for writers through Post’s micropayments system, where users pay a small fee to access individual items in their feed.
So far, Post has partnered with over 100 publishers, including notable names like The Boston Globe, The Brookings Institution, Fortune, The Independent, Insider, L.A. Times, NBC News, Politico, ProPublica, Reuters, SF Chronicle, MIT Technology Review, USA Today, Wired, World Politics Review, CNN, Semafor, Mashable, The New Yorker, Yahoo Finance, and others.
With the introduction of these new creator tools, Post aims to become more accessible to smaller publishers and individual newsletter writers. To utilize this feature, creators need to undergo a one-time setup process that allows their content to be seamlessly ingested and distributed through Post’s platform, similar to importing an RSS feed.
At launch, 115 creators are already collaborating with Post to take advantage of these new tools. Notable names among them include Robert Reich, George Takei, Dan Rather, Aaron Rupar, Dave Pell, Scott Galloway, and Allison Gill of Mueller She Wrote, who collectively boast over 200,000 newsletter subscribers and 400,000 followers on the platform. Post anticipates that the public launch of these tools will attract many more creators.
Founded by CEO Noam Bardin, formerly the CEO of Waze at Google, Post employs a micropayments system where users can purchase bundles of “points” to access news articles individually. For instance, 300 points cost $4.20, but users can get a 9.5% discount by buying up to 10,000 points for $126.70. Publishers have the flexibility to set the point cost for accessing their content, ranging from as low as 1 point to double-digit figures.
Post generates revenue by taking a small percentage of these point sales. Bardin has previously disclosed that publishers on Post’s platform achieve an average CPM (cost per thousand impressions) of $25 for paid posts.
In addition to introducing creator tools, Post is launching its Android app, expanding its presence beyond iOS and desktop platforms. All three platforms come with several new features, including native video uploads, push notifications, trending topics, enhanced editing tools, sharing capabilities, and an autosave feature.
As of June, Post reported having more than 440,000 registered users on its platform, and while the latest user figures were not provided, the company noted that active users have been growing at an average rate of 30% month-over-month in the past three months, with users spending over 30 minutes daily on the platform.
Noam Bardin expressed enthusiasm for Post’s growth and success, emphasizing their commitment to providing top-tier creator tools and a user-friendly app. He believes that these features, including auto-ingestion, tipping, and micropayments, are ushering in a future where content creation and publishing are more efficient and accessible than ever before.
