Substack once defined itself by empowering lone writers to break free from traditional newsrooms. Now its co-founder says the company races to build features that let those same newsrooms return on their own terms. Hamish McKenzie confirmed the shift in recent comments. The platform pilots customized brand presence, metered paywalls and advanced analytics for outfits like Bari Weiss’s The Free Press. It generalizes those capabilities for publications that run multiple editors, writers, video and community elements. “We’re making really fast progress on it,” McKenzie told Business Insider . The admission carries weight. The Ankler, a sharp-eyed media newsletter, recently departed for Passport. That new platform comes from Automattic, owner of WordPress.com, and Stratechery founder Ben Thompson. Its exit highlighted a growing tension. Some publishers feel their visually distinctive brand matters too much to risk looking like “just another Substack.” Yet many writers circle back.…