This Week: Dopamine gets devalued in the latest trend towards longer, slower media. TikTok launches an awards show in an uncertain environment, and this might just be YouTube’s Waterloo moment. Also, I’m in Lisbon about to host the “New Media” stage Tuesday at Web Summit. Don’t forget to RSVP to my party Tuesday too!
Hi, I’m Jim Louderback and this is my weekly creator economy newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.
If the latter – and you want to subscribe, get it here!
TOP STORIES
WE’VE OFFICIALLY ENTERED THE SLOW MEDIA ERA
The Slow Food movement began in Bra, Italy (yes, it’s a real town) in the 1980s as a revolt against fast food, flavorless nutrition, and sugar-fueled dopamine hits. @Sara Wilson’s recent post about depth and dopamine made me realize we’ve entered the **Slow Media** era. As she writes, “We don’t just want to consume anymore—we want to feel. To sit with something long enough for it to change us, not just distract us.”
You can see it in longer YouTube videos, more demanding but rewarding albums, and the growing impulse to pause mid-scroll and sit with meaning. Sure, we’ll still crave those quick dopamine jolts. But expect more of our media diet, and our lives, to shift towards substance over stimulation.
Maybe the next big trend? Japan’s Jazz Kissas—bars where you sip a drink and listen to a vinyl jazz record in silence, surrounded by others doing the same. Slow, intentional, ethereal and communal. “Hmmm… I might just hop a plane to Jazz Café Chigusa in Yokahama after Web Summit. Seems like the perfect place to slow down and let the music do the talking. (Community Catalysts , Chigusa)
Related: TikToker CatGPT threw a no Phone party… and then ABC News made it famous (TikTok)
COULD TV BE YOUTUBE’S WATERLOO?
A few months ago, I warned that YouTube TV’s carriage fights, first with Univision, then NBC, and now Disney/ESPN, could tarnish Big Red’s brand. That prediction came true last week when ABC, Disney, and ESPN vanished from the service, wiping out both live feeds and any cloud DVR recordings. The backlash has been fierce. So I’ll ask again: is TV really worth it for YouTube? Sometimes market share and revenue aren’t worth the brand damage.
Related: ABC Disney prepared its staff for last weekend’s continued cut-off. (THR)
TIKTOK’S STREAMY MOMENT
Not content to let Instagram have all the fun, TikTok is launching its own awards show – complete with red carpet, celebrity presenters, and 14 fan-voted categories. Subtitled *“New Era, New Icons** the event celebrates creators and the cultural moments shared by “170 million Americans.” Sponsored by e.l.f. Cosmetics and simulcast on Tubi (nice one, @Kudzi Chikumbu), it promises all the pageantry of traditional media, but filtered through TikTok’s lens.
While it’s great to see creators recognized, it risks becoming just another popularity contest. As I said when Instagram rolled out its own awards, maybe some of that budget would be better spent supporting creators directly. Cynically, this feels like Double-T’s attempt to reclaim relevance after a year in limbo. But I’m rooting for something bigger: a signal that TikTok has finally escaped geopolitics and found acceptance in both Washington and Beijing.
We’ll find out on December 18. (TikTok)
AS PLAY TURNS PREDATORY, ROBLOX REELS
Much has been made about Roblox as the new mall/town square for Gen Alpha. But Paramus Park never had a “teen sex dungeon” as an anchor tenant. A California judge just ruled that a lawsuit alleging Roblox failed to protect minors from sexual exploitation can proceed, exposing years of troubling moderation lapses and setting up a wave of potential copycat cases (ABC News).
At the same time, Abby Ho points out that brands are flooding into Roblox to build “sandbox” worlds, including virtual stores, festivals, and theme parks designed to meet kids where they play. More than 70% of U.S. teens now use Roblox, and advertisers are treating it like the next generation’s metaverse-meets-mall. (Fellow Kids)
That split tells the story of the platform era: the same digital spaces being sold as “community” can just as easily become liability zones. Roblox has become the mall, the movie theater, and unfortunately the dark alley behind it.
Mr Beast is coming to 1 billion Followers Summit – Celebrating 1 Billion Act of Kindness!
The 1 Billion Followers Summit has teamed up with MrBeast, MBRGI, and the Varkey Foundation to launch 1 Billion Acts of Kindness – a global, creator-led campaign inviting content creators everywhere to turn compassion into content and build the world’s largest movement for good. Enter Today! (My LinkedIn Post)
PLATFORMS
YOUTUBE
Shorts RPM passes Long Form: The money machine’s finally humming. @Neal Mohan says YouTube now earns more per minute from Shorts than from longform videos. Creators, however, aren’t feeling it. (Net Influencer)
META
Inappropriate Llama: Meta’s new privacy policy will let its algorithm factor in your AI chats when deciding which Reels, posts, and ads to show you. Might be time to cool things off with your new buddy, Llama. (VisualPing)
We’re Hip Too! Meta launches a K-pop artist series in the metaverse to counter Roblox and Fortnite (Music Ally)
Where’s the Beef: Is Reels really on track to out-earn YouTube in ad revenue? Maybe. But what really matters is that it’s raking in cash without sharing with creators. (Next In Media)
There Otta Be a Law: 10% of Meta’s ad revenue comes from scammers (CNBC)
Shop Safety Update: TikTok releases an update to its shopper safety policy and process. (TikTok)
TIKTOK
That’s a LOT of Tchotchkes: TikTok Shop now nearly as big as EBay globally. (TubeFilter)
QUIBIS
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
Another One Bites the Dust: Sad to see Teen Vogue shut down. Editor @versha Sharma did such great work there. (USA Today)
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em: Interesting creator/community journalism experiment happening in Sacramento California. (News Creator Corps).
Culture’s About to Get Boring: As AI begins curating what we watch, read, and hear, culture may become easier to access but harder to move us. Why? Because AI will optimize away the accidents and risks that fuel creativity. (The Observer)
You Will Know Pain: Thinking of launching a liquor brand? Think again, unless you can afford the A-team for marketing, distribution, and product. With 650 brands fighting for 50 shelf spots, it’s a bloodbath. (Scott Van den Berg)
Opt for Safety: Pinterest reaches 600 million active users. How did they do it? By focusing on GenZ and “safer” social media. (Social Media Today, NYT ($))
CREATOR TECH – AI, AR, VR, MORE
Netflix Leans Into Podcasting: I love that podcasts are getting a new home on Netflix. But if the rumored production upgrades polish away their rough edges, we might lose what made them special. If that happens, Netflix could be a net negative for the whole industry . (NY Post)
Viral Loops Then and Now: @Andrew Chen from A16z compares Viral Loops from the Web 2.0 era to today, highlighting what works, what doesn’t and the KPIs you need to monitor. (Substack)
AI Agents Aren’t an Overnight Sensation: Legendary VC @Ashu Garg uses compounding math to show why agents will be so hard to get right – and why we need more and better human developers to make it work. For a 10-step agent, 90% accuracy only works reliably a third of the time. And that’s for just a simple task. Statistical probability is great. Until you start stacking. (Substack)
Good Bubble, Bad Bubble: Stratechery argues that our AI bubble will likely turn out net positive – surprisingly because of data center, chip foundries and power build-outs. Either way, for most of us, we will know pain. (Stratechery)
Wayback Into the Future: With 1 trillion pages saved, internet’s chief librarian @Brewster Kahle mourns what’s lost. (Ars Technica)
Snap Search Via AI: Perplexity will pay Snap $400M to power their search. (TechCrunch)
RESEARCH
News Loses Big: Two new studies from Pew continue to paint an uncomfortable picture of the state of journalism in the US. Trust keeps slipping, and creators may be the ones quietly filling the gap. They found that 90% of U.S. adults now say they at least sometimes encounter news they believe is inaccurate. 42% say it happens often. Half of Americans admit they struggle to tell what’s true from what’s not, a figure that holds steady across demographics. Republicans report seeing falsehoods more often than Democrats (48% vs. 38%), and offline news consumers remain the least skeptical. Only 26% say they often run into bad info, compared with 43% of digital users.
That erosion of trust runs deep. Pew also found faith in both national and local news outlets has fallen since March, across parties and age groups. Against that backdrop, creators now account for one-fifth of Americans’ regular news consumption—and most of it happens by accident. Authenticity beats credentials, algorithms replace anchors, and trust is rebuilt one scroll at a time. (Pew on Trust, Pew on News influencers)
Creators Rebuild Media: But while trust in professional and self-taught journalists is vanishing, social video is winning. Activate’s 2026 Technology and Media Report shows how creators have quietly rebuilt the entertainment industry from the ground up. YouTube’s MrBeast pulled 26B views in nine months, while TikTok’s Brooke Monk racked up 8B. Entirely different audiences with similarly expansive impact. Netflix and Prime Video are licensing creator hits and funding $100M-plus series, while “micro-drama” apps now reach 28M young Americans, with more older viewers that you might expect. The data makes one thing clear: audiences no longer follow networks, they follow people. The next media empires won’t rise in Hollywood, they’ll emerge from Shorts. Read the full report if you want to see just how fast the shift is happening. (Activate Consulting)
It’s all Just TV: Deloitte’s latest research tends to confirm what Activate found. Their latest Digital Media Trends report concludes that TV isn’t a box anymore, it’s anything on a screen that feels worth your time. And social video is winning. 41% of consumers now define both social clips and streaming as “watching TV,” and 35% spend more time with social than streamers. Meanwhile the two models are colliding: 66% of SVOD homes also take an ad-tier, yet Gen Z and millennials say social ads influence purchases more than streaming spots and dots. Takeaway for creators and brands: design IP and ad products that travel across feeds, phones, and living rooms, or get stranded in the TV of yesteryear.
Where’s Jim? In Lisbon hosting the Web Summit New Media stage, and then back to the US!
Like this free newsletter? Buy me a coffee and say thanks! Or let’s do a meetup in your town.
100% written by me. AI used very sparingly for edits.
I’ve built and sold multiple creator economy startups to top media companies – including an MCN to Discovery and VidCon to Paramount. Subscribe here on LinkedIn to get this newsletter every Monday.
Let me know what you think – email me at jim@louderback.com. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.
