Jacob Wolf launches investigative gaming newsletter with Substack

Award-winning esports journalist Jacob Wolf is the first journalist in the gaming industry to partner with subscription newsletter platform Substack.

The basics: The Jacob Wolf Report will be released three times per week with both free and paid content available.

• Aged 25, the former ESPN and Dot Esports reporter is taking his writing talent and investigative reporting to the newsletter platform.
• Wolf told Hitmarker that Larry Burke, former Senior Editor at Sports Illustrated and VP of Content at Major League Baseball, will be editing his written work from here on.
• The Jacob Wolf Report will be released every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with the aim of "diving deep into the gaming and esports industries with the eye of an investigative reporter."
• While some content will be free, a big feature of Substack is paid subscriptions. This newsletter will have a plan that costs $10 per month (or $100 per year) that provides access to all of the work that Wolf publishers, though the "Founding Member" plan offers additional perks for $1,000 per year.
• Outside of his written journalism, which he received an award for in 2018, Wolf is the Founder and Executive Producer of production company Overcome. Again focusing on gaming and esports, Overcome is launching an eight-part investigative podcast with Nerd Street Gamers later in 2022.

The new meta? Journalists have been moving to Substack in an effort to achieve editorial independence for a few years now.

• He announced his departure from Dot Esports on January 3rd and took some time away from publishing his writing, though he was still open to offers from publications.
• Wolf is the first gaming journalist to partner with the newsletter platform but has made it clear that he's not employed by the company, allowing him complete editorial freedom.
• Prominent journalists covering other beats, such as Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, have moved over to Substack having previously worked for mainstream publications such as Rolling Stone and The New York Times.
• "I’m sad about the state of ad-supported digital media in esports right now," Wolf said. "Even among the highly successful like Esports Talk, we’ve seen significant employee turnover. Not to mention Upcomer and Esports.gg, who’ve recently let go of folks, too."
• He added: "The opportunity to build something subscriber-based—like creators on Twitch or Patreon—with Substack, a platform that’s successfully figured out that formula, is thrilling."