💬 Open Tabs: the celebrities are flocking to Substack (and what it means for brands and creators)

Happy Friday 👋We’re back with another edition of Open Tabs, our weekly Substack live where we talk about the news and cultural moments that have been taking up space in our brains and Google tabs. We’ll be off next week for the holiday but we’ll be back the first week of December. In the meantime, let us know if there’s anything in your Open Tabs that we should talk about 👇Here are the topics we covered this week:* Celebrities are flocking to Substack [0:00]. In the past week, charli xcx, Dolly Parton, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have all launched Substack newsletters. Substack is actively courting creators and celebrities, positioning itself as a platform for early adopters where competition is low and the algorithm favors new entrants. For celebrities, newsletters are a low-pressure way to express themselves, behind the scenes, without the constant demand of video content.* Shein is selling books now [15:26]. In an effort to appeal to Gen Z’s growing obsession with all things analog, fast fashion giant Shein is now selling secondhand books on their platform. Shein’s approach mirrors its fast-fashion model: low-cost, mass-randomized offerings designed to take advantage of BookTok rather than satisfy core book lovers. * Tens of thousands of people are tuning into Reddit for chopped chives [23:44]. For the past 45 days, Reddit user has been posted daily to r/KitchenConfidential [a subreddit with 1.7M members], chronicling his journey to chopping the perfect chives. This has completely taken over the subreddit with thousands of people, including myself, tuning in to see his progress and share chopping tips. Recently, brands have started to get in on the action by running targeted ads and the community isn’t happy. * If you want to go deeper on Reddit, check out our Q&A with Erin Hirsch, a Reddit alum who worked there for 8 years, on how brands can build community on the platform.* The Future of Communications Conference [36:00]. Last week Melissa Blum presented at the Future of Communications Conference with Sarah Peck, GoFundMe’s VP of Communications, about how GoFundMe approaches community across a fragmented platform landscape. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mtdeco.substack.com/subscribe