Vox is on Patreon now

Patreon is best known as a subscription-based platform for individual creators, especially those making podcasts and video content. Now, it counts one of the most prominent digital media companies among its clients: On Monday, Vox launched its membership program on Patreon, Semafor reported.

The partnership makes two new Vox shows exclusively available to Patreon supporters: a Supreme Court-focused series called “The Docket,” which released its first episode Monday, and a solutions-oriented policy series called “What’s Working.” (People who are already Vox members will get a year of Patreon access with their subscriptions.) Vox also plans to offer Patreon members live conversations, behind-the-scenes “reporter extras,” and ad-free episodes.

This partnership is the latest indication that the fast-evolving company wants to entice both individual and staff journalists to its platform, and makes its competition with Substack more explicit. Patreon has persuaded prominent Substackers to jump ship and, just last week, launched a suite of social-media-like features including tweet-like Quips that call to mind Substack Notes. Patreon was founded in 2013, just one year before Vox; Substack launched in 2017.

Patreon, like Substack, “has emphasized creator-to-fan relationships as an antidote to fickle social media algorithms that giveth and taketh away,” The Verge’s Mia Sato wrote last week. (The Verge is owned by Vox Media.) “But creators also want to grow their audiences, and that requires getting in front of new people. Patreon will need to find a balance where the platform can support growing fan bases — without it feeling like a whole new algorithm that creators have to crack.”

You can read more about Vox’s Patreon partnership in Max Tani’s story.