Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic A 1961 sideboard by Knoll, crafted in rosewood and marble, is “both harsh and challenging”, writes Sami Reiss in a recent edition of Snake, his “design intelligence newsletter”. “It’s cool that such an up-the-middle piece can look so futuristic.”Reiss, an occasional writer for GQ magazine and columnist for lifestyle glossy Dwell, sends out weekly emails about the global collectible furniture and design market, everything from Saarinen to Sottsass, as well as what he calls “trending, avant-garde, expressive and forgotten-canon”.His fast-paced, irreverent tone is a world away from polite interiors magazines. Reiss tells his readers about prices and deals in the language he might use if he were discussing business with them in a bar. The Knoll sideboard, he writes, can be found “on ecom sites like 1stDibs for a good 8 or 9 large . . . Steal under $1,300, deal under 2”.Substack, the email newsletter platform, is fast becoming a place for design collectors and enthusiasts to find independent, quick-fire news and auction intelligence, particularly in the US where independent titles are flourishing — Snake is joined by For Scale, Schmatta and Ground Condition, among others. Some are free to read, some charge a subscription fee; many offer a combination.“I wanted to cover furniture with [an emphasis on] vintage, both museum-worthy pieces and insane deals, often at once — and go past hired decorators and speak to normal smart people who want good stuff in their homes,” says Reiss, who added a paywall to Snake for auction information posts in 2023.Typically written by industry insiders and journalists, design Substacks reach a tiny specialist audience compared with the broad readership of traditional print media. Reiss says Snake, for example, has about 8,300 subscribers (though not all paying) — up from 1,700 two years ago. For Scale has 8,600 subscribed readers (again, not all paying): 62 per cent in the US, mostly in New York or Los Angeles, with a further 9 per cent in the UK.Newsletters’ big advantage is intimacy, writers say. “It’s coming directly to you, it’s a lot more direct than just beaming something out into the wider internet,” says Kelsey Keith, whose occasional Substack Ground Condition is aimed at readers who “appreciate everything from conversation pits to Shaker cabinets” and reaches about 3,000 subscribers.Another reason for growth, say Substack writers, may be dwindling print coverage of design and interiors. Design Week, for example, has had erratic fortunes. It launched 38 years ago as a prestigious glossy magazine, went online only in 2011 and closed down this year (though it may relaunch in the coming months).“Fewer traditional media outlets are covering the sorts of things [collectors] want to read about,” says Keith, who is also creative director of US furniture brand Herman Miller and a former New York Times interiors columnist.Keith, who is based in California, started her free Substack in 2020 but says 2022 was the year it “boomed” in the US. That was the same year that David Michon, former editor of Icon magazine, launched For Scale, a Substack for design enthusiasts whose tone might be described as assertive, occasionally acerbic. “I would go to design parties and have these funny, critical, observant conversations about the world of decor, but they weren’t reflected anywhere,” says Michon, who is based in LA and works as a content strategist and freelance writer. “So I started writing up those conversations.”For Scale, which covers topics such as “the airport terminal as home decor” and “grotto-esque”, is offbeat, eclectic and opinionated. Here, for example, is Michon’s not-entirely-serious verdict on a reader’s transparent plastic tablecloth: “It has a kind of camp-futurism, a Late Capitalist ennui, that contains within it a self-awareness of not only the potential stress ‘wear’ but also a deep respect for the ‘need for use’.”For Scale is “imagined as a rabbit hole, how you might scroll through your phone — sometimes fast, sometimes pausing”, says Michon. “It has different paces, it goes off on tangents, it’s choppy, but that’s how I consume information.”It is also sweary. “A little unserious,” he says. “I felt many magazines treated interiors so seriously, and they’re important but not that important. I don’t believe in a hierarchy of tastes.”Substack writers’ irreverence is not necessarily a bad thing for brands, galleries and auction houses, says Carolyn Larkin, founding director of London-based Caro Communications. “There’s a growing appetite for candour and authenticity,” says Larkin. “Some of the most successful Substack writers are former editors, perhaps for the first time sharing genuine takes [using] language outside of their former employer’s style guide.”USM, the Modernist modular furniture company, was not put off when it sponsored Michon’s coverage at this year’s Salone del Mobile design fair in Milan — the first time the company tried Substack marketing. “For Scale is very discerning and brings a lot of freshness and humour. It does not hold back. And it helps a reader wade through loads of information, new and historical,” says Jon Thorson, USM’s US managing director.But USM found Substack’s metrics to be less detailed than the systems it uses to measure engagement with its in-house newsletters. “Working with For Scale was tougher to measure,” says Thorson. Nevertheless, USM will work with For Scale again for the Design Miami fair in December.Michon says he makes a small income from paying subscribers. But For Scale does not do affiliate marketing (where Michon would receive a cut of a sale price if a reader clicked through a link to buy). “Affiliate [marketing] works when a bunch of product is sitting in a warehouse, but the vintage stuff I’m talking about is one-off,” he says.Few Substack writers earn enough money from their newsletters to live on. Those specialising in design tend to be written for love and amusement, rather than serious attempts to upend traditional titles. Everyone I spoke to said they devoted a day a week, at most, to writing them. But design Substacks do offer collectors, galleries and auction houses a new kind of commentary and intelligence.“I wouldn’t be sending out the newsletter if I had enough to read on the topic already,” says Keith.
