Issue 9
November 20th, 2025
This week felt like watching the creator economy level up in real time. Platforms are racing to give creators better tools – TikTok, YouTube, Meta, and Patreon all rolled out major updates. Startups are raising serious money to fuel the boom. And creators themselves are branching into entirely new ventures. The infrastructure is finally catching up to the opportunity.
Since we've had a bunch of new subscribers join recently (welcome!), here's a quick reminder of what we do: Every Thursday, I round up the most important creator economy news and break it down into digestible sections. Biggest News covers the week's headline story. Did You Know? drops a key stat or trend. Essential Reads points you to the articles worth your time, with my take on why they matter. The whole point is to keep you informed without drowning you in noise—so you can spend more time creating and less time hunting for what matters.
Alright, let's dive in.
Biggest News This Week
We talked about this story last week, but it's been making waves since Beehiiv's announcement last Thursday, so it deserves a deeper look. Beehiiv is evolving way beyond newsletters into what they're calling a creator business operating system. They just rolled out AI-powered website builders, digital product storefronts, enhanced analytics, and podcast/YouTube integrations—and here's the kicker: no commission cuts like Substack charges.
Four newsletter creators shared how these tools arrived at the perfect time. The newsletter space is getting saturated, and they need to diversify beyond email lists. The analytics upgrade is a game-changer – showing exactly where traffic comes from and what drives engagement. Plus, being able to sell merch and services directly without losing 10% to platform fees? That's real money back in creators' pockets.
This isn't about newsletters anymore. It's about building actual businesses with multiple revenue streams. Beehiiv is betting that creators don't want to be locked into one format or one monetization model – and they're building the infrastructure to support that.
Did You Know?
Ad giant WPP forecasts that creators will earn $185 billion in ad revenue in 2025, a 20% jump from last year. In other words, brands are pouring more money than ever into influencer content – a vivid sign of the creator economy’s explosive growth (and a nice confidence boost for anyone making a living online).
Essential Reads
This one breaks down exactly why consumers trust creators over brands, backed by marketing research. It identifies five distinct types of value that influencers provide – from social connection to financial savings – and explains how parasocial relationships create authentic trust that traditional advertising can't replicate.
There are also some other interesting nuggets in here, like:
why smaller influencers often outperform mega-creators
the challenges of maintaining authenticity while monetizing
what brands need to understand about the intense pressure influencers face.
It's a great look at the creator economy's foundation and future challenges.
There’s a culture clash happening as traditional Hollywood professionals try to pivot into the creator economy. A journalist embedded in a "master class" where TV and movie veterans learned the fundamentals of working with digital creators – everything from how creators operate differently than traditional media to what skills transfer and what mindsets need to change.
Interesting to read her 5 key lessons: the speed and agility creators demand, the importance of understanding platform algorithms and audience engagement metrics, how budget expectations differ radically from Hollywood productions, the direct relationship creators have with their audiences versus the intermediated model of traditional media, and the entrepreneurial skillset required.
This is a handy guide to keep bookmarked (just know it’s an article written by Sprout Social, so there is some obvious bias). It breaks down exactly how to leverage TikTok for business growth in 2026, covering everything from account setup to advanced strategy. It walks you through the platform's evolution beyond dance videos into a serious commerce and discovery engine.
One thing I found most interesting is the deep dive into TikTok's unique algorithmic advantage – where engagement matters more than follower count. This is something I’ve been diving more into a lot lately!
This is a podcast from TED Radio Hour, but you can also read the full transcript if you’re so inclined.
Creators are reshaping language and culture through viral content. Online linguist Adam Aleksic breaks down his strategy for going viral by decoding internet slang and etymology. The bigger story here is about the creator economy itself—how making a living online means constantly optimizing for 'the algorithm,' which fundamentally changes what gets created and how we communicate. It's part 2 of their creator economy series, showing how platform mechanics don't just distribute content—they actively shape our speech patterns and cultural production.
At first glance, this looks like a weird move. But YouTube claims 1 billion people are watching podcasts on its platform, and TikTok has taken the bait. They just announced a partnership with iHeartMedia to bring podcasts to TikTok in a way that makes sense for the platform – short-form clips, vertical video, and searchable moments that can drive discovery. The deal includes access to iHeart's massive catalog of shows and the ability for podcasters to distribute clips natively on TikTok while driving listeners back to full episodes. It's not about replacing traditional podcast players; it's about meeting audiences where they already are and using TikTok's algorithm to surface moments from long-form content. If this works, it could fundamentally change podcast discovery and give creators another powerful distribution channel. We'll be watching this one closely.