📬 Substack Newsletter & Creator Scraper (Sponsorship & PR Leads)

Looking to sponsor high-converting Substack newsletters, discover influential writers, or pitch PR guest articles?

Substack is home to the world's most engaged niche audiences. This actor extracts newsletter metrics, author names, social profiles (Twitter/X, Instagram), subscriber monetization tiers, and recent post engagement stats (likes, comments, publish dates) in seconds — with zero browser overhead and 100% reliability.

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💡 What Can You Do With This Scraper?

• 🤝 Newsletter Sponsorship Discovery: Find newsletters with high reader engagement (likes & comments per post) before committing your advertising or sponsorship budget.
• 📢 PR Pitching & Podcast Guesting: Extract writer bios, names, and linked Twitter/X handles to pitch story exclusives, product launches, or podcast interviews.
• 📊 Competitive Media Monitoring: Track publication frequency, content topics, and audience reaction across competing newsletters in your niche.
• 🎯 Creator Economy Market Research: Identify whether publications operate paid subscriber tiers, free models, or hybrid tiers to analyze monetization trends.
• 🤖 Automate Media Databases via Apify API: Sync fresh newsletter data into Airtable, Notion, or Google Sheets to build an automated PR and media database.

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⚡ Why Choose This Scraper Over Competitors?

Feature	This Actor	Heavy Headless Scrapers / Manual Research
Speed	⚡ Instant (~1s per publication)	🐌 Slow browser rendering
Engagement Metrics	✅ Up to 10 recent posts with likes & comments	⚠️ Often only scrapes the landing page
Social Links Extracted	✅ Direct Twitter/X & Instagram handles	❌ Requires manual hunting
Pricing	💰 Pay-Per-Event ($0.0015 / newsletter)	💸 Expensive creator database subscriptions
Free Tier Allowance	🎁 ~3,333 newsletters FREE with Apify credit	❌ Restrictive trial credits

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🚀 How to Scrape Substack Newsletters (3 Easy Steps)

1. Paste Newsletter URLs: Add target Substack URLs (e.g. ["https://pragmaticengineer.substack.com", "https://lenny.substack.com"]).
2. Run Scraper: Click Start to run the scraper.
3. Export Audience Data: Download your enriched creator dataset in CSV, Excel, or JSON.

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📥 Input Parameters

Field	Type	Description	Default / Example
substack_urls	Array	Array of Substack newsletter root URLs.	["https://pragmaticengineer.substack.com", "https://lenny.substack.com"]

Sample Input JSON

{
  "substack_urls": [
    "https://pragmaticengineer.substack.com",
    "https://lenny.substack.com"
  ]
}

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📤 Sample Output JSON

{
  "newsletter_name": "The Pragmatic Engineer",
  "author": "Gergely Orosz",
  "description": "The #1 technology newsletter on Substack. Big tech and high-growth startups, from the inside.",
  "subscriber_tier": "Paid/Free Tiers",
  "social_links": [
    "https://twitter.com/gergelyorosz"
  ],
  "recent_posts": [
    {
      "title": "Software Engineering in the AI Age",
      "url": "https://pragmaticengineer.substack.com/p/ai-coding",
      "likes": 842,
      "comments": 78,
      "published_at": "2025-05-18T14:30:20.000Z"
    }
  ]
}

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💰 Fair Pay-Per-Event (PPE) Pricing

You only pay for newsletters that are successfully extracted!

• Price: $0.0015 per newsletter extracted ($1.50 per 1,000 newsletters).
• Apify Free Credit: Every Apify account receives $5.00 in free monthly credit, meaning you can scrape up to 3,333 Substack publications every single month for FREE!

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Does this work with custom domains on Substack?

Yes! Many top Substack publications use custom domains (e.g. newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com or lennysnewsletter.com). Simply provide the full URL and the actor will extract the underlying publication data.

Can I see historical post engagement?

Yes! Each output record includes up to 10 of the most recent articles with real-time like counts, comment counts, and direct URLs so you can accurately measure engagement before spending sponsorship dollars.

How do I export this data to Google Sheets?

After the actor finishes running, open the Storage tab on your Apify Console and click Export. Choose CSV or connect directly to Google Sheets.