The downstream effects of this shift are more important than any one journalist doing a front-facing video. They reflect the emergence of a new way of balancing the benefits of an institution with the appeals of a creator. Publishers have historically resisted this atomization, but there is increasing proof that a middle ground is possible and rewarding.
4. Creator-led media scales up
On a related note, a media executive once told me that the digital transformation of news was all about right-sizing: the big players needed to get smaller, and the small players needed to get bigger.
Until recently, we have seen plenty of the former but very little of the latter. This year, that began to change. The Substack revolution of the early pandemic gave rise to a wave of solo creators, but only recently have those independent outfits begun to scale up, giving rise to sustainable operations that cultivate a smaller but more engaged audience, often through subscriptions.
The Free Press is obviously the poster child of this evolution, having secured a $150 million exit. But a number of other creator-centric publishers have lately approached escape velocity themselves.
Emily Sundberg’s FeedMe, naturally, is perhaps most emblematic of this shift, but Puck represents a far more sophisticated iteration of the trend. Alongside it are stalwarts like Defector, which continues to chug along unbothered, as well as Zeteo, Status, 404Media, Newcomer, Platformer, TBPN, A Media Operator, Drop Site News, and The Bulwark. You could even throw Semafor in the mix.
These publishers might be small, but their continuity feels far more assured than that of the media giants of yesteryear. Even as it was happening, the multibillion-dollar valuations of sites like BuzzFeed, Vice, Vox, and Business Insider felt like the product of a fever dream. Maybe media has learned from its mistakes, at least to some degree, and the newest torch-bearers are far more durable than their predecessors.
5. Publishers, meet marketing
Despite their reliance on advertising, publishers have been oddly loath to market themselves. This year, that began to change.
As I reported, six publishers ran brand-marketing campaigns this year, several of which did so for the first time in company history. Outlets including Hearst, Wired, Reuters, MarketWatch, NBC News, and The Guardian all paid for splashy spots across digital and physical media in recent months, all in service of shaping their brand identity. Other premium publishers, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, also regularly flog their pedigree.
Similarly, this year has been filled with media rebrands: Max regained its HBO garlands, MSNBC changed to MSNow (as NBCUniversal’s cable networks split off into Versant) , Dotdash Meredith transformed into People Inc., and Gannett became USA Today Co. These are not brand-marketing campaigns per se, but they are certainly born of a greater focus on how consumers perceive their companies.
This shift is largely the result of the shifting information landscape, where passive discovery has disappeared and publishers must proactively pursue consumers. As with the creator-ification trend I mentioned earlier, the importance here is not specifically one brand campaign, but the mindset shift that the trend reflects.
