Commentary
Creators Are The Media Magnates Of The Century
- by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, April 3, 2024
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time watching creator economy content the last few months, and been struck by how much quality content is out there. The media talks about Mr. Beast and in the past, I’ve talked about Dude Perfect, but there are literally thousands of channels worth of high-quality content being created on a weekly basis by people who may not yet be a household name, but whose audiences are loyal and whose content rivals anything you see on network and cable television.
These people take their craft very seriously. They film in HD video (or better) and they have carefully scripted content that provides a solid point of view on a broad range of topics from personal finance or entertainment news to lifestyle, health or more. The editing is top notch and the ways they promote their content across platforms like YouTube and TikTok present them as a very buttoned-up business. This is not some hobby. This is a profession, and these people are easily pulling in seven figures a year in revenue.
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The macro view of this shift represents a flip in the weighting of importance. In the old model, the publisher’s brand was the draw, and the on-air personalities were a secondary consideration. These days, the creators are the personalities, and I would argue they are far more important than the traditional brands.
Some publishers have recognized this and started to prop up their personalities to celebrity status, but too many of the historical “power” brands are reticent to acknowledge this and as a result, they will be left to pass on by.
This shift is sped up because of the ease in which high quality content can be created and distributed. YouTube and TikTok are platforms that enable reach for quality content, so you don’t need to spend quite as much time building an audience. You simply publish where the audience is and try to capture their eyeballs to subscribe.
A subscription in this world is less a barrier of entry because there’s no cost involved. To subscribe is a simple click and an acceptance that you will be updated. With such a low bar, it becomes easier for a creator to create and if they maintain the quality, they can maintain (and grow) the audience. Word of mouth plays a strong role here, as well. The audience promotes you when you’re good.
I’m not the only one taking note. In the last few weeks I’ve witnessed a number of new relationships where YouTube creators are getting deals to put their content on OTT, CTV or even on major streamers. This content is more profitable than major studio content, produced faster, and they aren’t part of the SAG union, so there’s little to no risk of a strike anytime in the future. The major studios recognize all of this, and they aren’t dumb. They know this is a major step forward for them.
Take a few minutes and check out content from people like Hacksmith, Shelby Church, Asian Boss Girl, JomBoy Media, New Rockstars, Miki Rae, Dropouts Podcast, UnFiltered and more. These creators make great content -- and their audiences will eat it up weekly! There’s so much to choose from. Enjoy!
So there is "thousands of channels worth of high-quality content being created on a weekly basis ".
There is roughly ten-thosusand minutes in a week (well, 10,080). To thoroughly assess content quality and relevance I would need to consume around 10 seconds maximum per entity. That would also mean no sleeping iin a week.
Yes, there are some very smart entertaining creators - Cory has named eight and noted that there are more. But it also means we're talking about one or two percent of the creators would have success and the rest would need to have another go.
And considering the rate of creator success each week in it will als mean that you won't have time to eat, work, sleep etc. if you have FOMO as a creator. It also means that eventually content will exceed potential audience. But by all means ride the wave NOW!
"There is a successful creator economy," "some of that content is great," and "there is too much content" can all be true. I've said for a number of years now that content discovery is becoming the biggest challenge for the media consumer. A very small amount of content will make it to enough audience to be fiscally viable. The rest will become training material for AI. But as someone once said awhile ago now: "everyone will be famous for 15 people."