Of course, Caliber is not completely alone in its effort to work more closely with creators. Across the media ecosystem, news brands have been reassessing their relationships to renegade newsgatherers.
Some, like the Vox Media Podcast Network, have built creator networks that complement their core businesses. Others, like Morning Brew, have experimented with turning their corporate staff into talent, while outlets like Wired, Bloomberg, and The New York Times have worked to treat their reporters more like talent, hiring on-camera coaches and launching franchises attached to top attractions.
But few have so openly welcomed external creators into their company as Caliber will with SaySo.
The product represents the latest new boundary to have been crossed, with news media now openly directing their audiences to consume content from independent creators. It is a platform play, obviously, so there is an editorial distinction between The Recount, for instance, and SaySo, but consumers are unlikely to be so discerning.
In 2025, I argued that the overarching media trend of the year was the creator-ification of media companies, that in the future the media ecosystem would become indistinguishable from a constellation of creator collectives. We are still several years away from that point, but products like SaySo affirm to me that it is our end destination.
Consumer trust and affinity for individuals is orders of magnitude higher than it is for institutions, but operating as an individual creator requires that the entrepreneur hold a variety of roles at the same time: producer of content, along with salesman, marketer, insurance haggler, landlord, etc. Few creators want to take on all of those mundane responsibilities, which is why media companies will persist, if only as infrastructure for the creators themselves.
With SaySo, Caliber is betting that the creator model of media will eventually supplant the nameless, faceless monolith that has defined media for decades. Even the Economist is putting its reporters on camera, if you needed any more proof. The question is not whether or not Caliber is right about this prediction, but whether or not it is right about the timeframe.
Talking Heds
A Banner Day for the Gazette: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of the oldest newspapers in America, was set to shutter next month after more than two centuries in operation. But on Tuesday, the nonprofit organization behind The Baltimore Banner announced it had acquired the Post-Gazette, granting the Pittsburgh institution a stay of execution. Immediate reception to the news has been, understandably, positive, but some significant questions remain outstanding. The Post-Gazette was shuttered, in part, after a protracted labor dispute between its union and its ownership, but The Baltimore Banner is not a union shop. Baltimore Banner president and CEO Bob Cohn told me that he plans to “follow the wishes of the newsroom,” so time will tell. Relatedly, The Banner itself has not yet achieved breakeven financial status, now in its fourth year of operation, and is financing the tie-up via a $30 million infusion from the philanthropist behind its nonprofit. Naturally I hope for the best, but neither publisher is out of the woods just yet.
Sporting at The Journal: The Wall Street Journal announced on Wednesday the launch of a new event, The Next Sports Economy, which will debut in July. The move is the latest in a series of experiential launches from the Dow Jones property, but its subject matter is particularly telling. The business of sports has grown perhaps without parallel in recent years: Franchises are now asset classes for private equity firms, the 12-figure price tag of distribution rights are threatening to bankrupt broadcasters, and domestic leagues are increasingly eyeing global expansion. Against this backdrop, The Journal has been relatively conservative in its coverage of the space, ceding the territory instead to upstarts like Front Office Sports, on3, and Sportico. Amongst industry insiders, though, there has long been speculation that The Journal will simply buy its way into the beat by snapping up one of these outlets, but such a likelihood now seems less certain given its decision to establish a tentpole franchise of its own.
