Will Fries

@willfries · The Watershed Observer · Substack profile · International

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Will Fries has 409 followers on Substack as of Oct 31, 2026. 7 publications recommend them, and they recommend 4.

Followers read 6 days ago

Last read Oct 31, 2026 (UTC). Followers are not email subscribers. Substack lists only the newest 50 recommendations for each publication, so a recommender count of 50 or more is a floor. History starts Oct 31, 2026; Substack publishes nothing earlier.

Followers: 409; read Oct 31
Last 7 days: first number on Nov 7
Last 30 days: first number on Nov 30
Subscribers: 286; rounded by Substack
Paid subscribers: none shown
Recommended by: 7; none new in 30 days
Recommends: 4
Bestsellers rank: not on a board

Followers by day

Tracking since Oct 31, 2026. This is the first reading. Substack doesn't publish past follower counts, so history starts the day I first read a writer and grows by one reading every 3 days (daily if it's on your watchlist). The 7-day change appears on Nov 7, the 30-day change on Nov 30. Recommendation dates below go further back: they're Substack's own.

One reading a day, the last of the day. Marked: leaderboard steps (into the top 25, top 10, or #1). Followers are people who follow Will Fries on Substack; they aren't email subscribers.

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Daily readings
Date	Followers	Change	Subscribers	Paid band
Oct 31, 2026	409		286

Leaderboard positions

Not on a category leaderboard right now

Substack's boards list the top 100 per category, by paid subscribers (Bestsellers) and by recent paid growth (Rising). I read all 66 of them once a day, so a new entry shows up within a day.

Recommendations

7 publications recommend Will Fries. Will Fries recommends 4, and 2 of those recommend back. Lists read Oct 31.

The 7 largest publications on each side, by followers. Bigger dot, more followers. Orange: started in the last 30 days. Gray dots: publications I don't track, so no follower count.

When the recommendations started

Live recommendations by the month each began, using Substack's own start date. Removed ones aren't listed by Substack, so they don't appear.

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Recommendations started per month
Month	Started
2025-08	3
2025-09	1
2025-10	1
2025-11	1
2026-01	1

Recommended by

Brandon's Substackstarted Jan 27, 2026
What's Working PDX started Nov 17, 2025
Michael Swartzstarted Oct 2025
Airina Perostarted Sep 2025
Good Gorillastarted Aug 2025 · mutual
Daniel’s Substackstarted Aug 2025
John Dedie Maryland State Politics & Governmentstarted Aug 2025 · mutual

Recommends

Erin Reed229k followers · started Apr 11, 2026
Good Gorillastarted Oct 14, 2026 · mutualnew
John Dedie Maryland State Politics & Governmentstarted Aug 2025 · mutual
Dan Rodricks Commentarystarted Aug 2025

Substack lists the 50 newest recommenders of each publication. I add every recommendation found in the full lists of the 6,392 publications I read, so writers with many recommenders may still be missing a few small ones. "Started" is Substack's date.

Who recommends writers like this one

Publications that recommend at least two other International writers with under 1,000 followers (96 writers in that group), but not Will Fries.

The Intellectual Investor
recommends 9 of them
BenefitHumanity
recommends 2 of them