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Creators say it’s difficult to make money from news — with platform rules and brand guidelines

Nearly 60 percent of Americans regularly get their news from social media rather than traditional media networks, according to a recent Syracuse University study. But news creators, whether they left traditional media to forge their own path, tacked on content creation to their existing mainstream roles, or were forged in the fires of social-first, have a difficult path ahead of them in terms of securing brand deals, maintaining consistent revenue, and keeping journalistic standards.

Finding partnerships to sustain revenue can be difficult due to skittish brands, and finicky algorithms can make ad revenue unreliable. Platforms can suppress content, making the supposed freedom of independent news creation feel less free. Yet more than 79% of polled Americans see a “meaningful difference” between independent news creators and traditional journalists, according to the Syracuse University study. The creator economy is set to make $43.9 billion this year. So, where does the news creator go from here?

“It’s probably the most difficult category to be in as a creator,” said Kurt Stadelman, vp of talent management at Pearpop. “News creators are a very tricky category for us. Inherently there are brand safety concerns if their content topics are consistently political or just controversial in nature at all.”

There is definitely a “sensitivity” when it comes to partnerships with news creators director of news, civics, and podcast partnerships at YouTube

There’s also a desire for news creators to ensure the few brands they are offered deals with align with their ideologies and avoid alienating viewers who may be hypersensitive to branded content.

Adam Mockler (2.2 million subscribers on YouTube), credits much of his knowledge to an early career partnership with independent news network Meidas Touch (6.5 million subscribers on YouTube). He said he only accepts partnerships with brands he’d actually recommend. He didn’t say how much those partnerships are worth.

“I get messages in the inbox all the time from brands that I’m sure are great, but they just don’t fit and they don’t feel authentic,” said Mark Istook, a former mainstream news reporter and local morning anchor who pivoted to independent news content creation a few years ago. “I am really sensitive to how this comes across to my audience.”

Independent but still platform dependent

So then how do news creators grow their revenue and build infrastructure that allows for sustainability and scalability? As demand for them grows, several possible paths have appeared. Almost all of them involve paywalling their content, not only because it’s tough to be beholden to the whims of an algorithm, but because the nature of news creators’ content means sometimes it can feel like platforms are suppressing them for their political nature.

Several of the five creators who spoke with Digiday said that TikTok has been rough since the U.S. ownership deal closed in January of this year, with flagging engagement and inconsistent content moderation.

“I have mentally abandoned it,” said Mockler, who instead praised Facebook for its post performance and noted Reddit has worked very well for him lately. Hermes said, “it’s insane over there.” “It’s all over the map, post-sale,” said Istook. (Digiday reached out to TikTok for comment. A representative said the platform provides support for journalists and news organizations through education and tools for audience development.)

YouTube has recently invested in courting news creators in a “real renaissance of journalists,” according to Brendan Feldman, director of news, civics, and podcast partnerships at YouTube. He said the platform supports journalists by offering input on how to leave their organizations and “[chart] their own path,” or help them find better ways to build their businesses.

“We have seen that a lot of the enthusiasm around journalists going out on their own is getting a lot of attention,” he said. Their job is to pair that with “the advertiser interest in how to play in the creator economy, what that means for the news and information ecosystem.” Feldman didn’t offer details on how successful that pairing has been.

Every platform ebbs and flows in terms of engagement. News creators find those shifts to be even more extreme. All the creator journalists who spoke with Digiday stressed how difficult the independent grind can be. Platform subscriptions, whether on YouTube, Substack, Patreon, beehiiiv or Twitch offer a consistent revenue flow that may ensure creators can continue their regular reporting outside of major events or trending topics.

“The subscription model is still the best,” said Grant Hermes, AP Award-winning journalist and former anchor who now hosts the Make It Make Sense podcast. “We sort of let the horse out of the barn. Once we started giving away the news for free online, and then trying to claw it back — that was either an on or off switch.”

Hermes and Istook both believe that audiences are willing to pay for high-quality, trustworthy news content, especially during tentpole political events like the midterms.

But with the risk of subscription fatigue on the horizon, the possibility that news creators join together to create paywalled content looks more enticing. Media companies like this already exist. Caliber launched news app SaySo earlier this year, a short-form video news app that features vetted news creators’ content.

Caliber CEO Ramin Beheshti said the platform is similar to Substack and beehiiv, but focused solely on video and was designed around providing revenue back to the creator.

“You should make money from the content that you are creating for audiences — especially as a news creator — not necessarily having to do advertising or brand deals that compromise what you are covering,” he said.

Hermes is a SaySo creator (agreements vary by creator, but require a certain number of videos for a length of time that’s up for negotiation when it’s over) said it’s built in a way that’s tailored to creator journalists. “This is the kind of scaffolding that I think more places will start to use,” he said.

Istook, who also creates content on the app, said, “You aren’t having to deal with some of the noise and the muck that you’re dealing with in other places.”

This may be the blueprint for news creators going forward. “I think that turn is coming…in the next two years, most of us who are right where I am right now are primed for that exact thing,” said Hermes, who stressed that the “thing” could be consolidating as a group of news creators, or getting picked up to do social-first content by a traditional platform.

“As much as we want to ring the death knell for news…I think it’s a really exciting time,” said Istook.

Creators say it’s difficult to make money from news