The creator journalism bundle boom begins

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When I spoke to Chris Cillizza a few weeks back, he mentioned signing on with Noosphere, a new app charging $15 a month for users to have unlimited access to content from independent news producers like him.

I’ve gotta be honest – I told Chris I was skeptical. It’s hard to break through and get users to download a new app and even harder to get them to use it regularly (see almost every failed Twitter replacement for proof).

The growth of successful content creator journalists, especially ones working in video, has been an ability to ride the algorithm on existing platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram – with content surfacing to the audience where they already are, instead of asking them to take the extraordinary step of finding value in a news-centric app and then paying for a pretty hefty monthly subscription for that content. To be super clear: Audiences who consume independent news on platforms are mostly doing this while they are tempering the doom scroll with cooking videos and viral dances – for free. Asking that same audience to pay $15/month for just the doom scroll? It’s a tough sell.

There is a subset of Americans, of citizens of the world, who believe enough in the mission of journalism to pay for it. It’s why The New York Times and your favorite monthly magazine exist. The success of independent newsletter writers like Cillizza (who is pulling in close to $250K year in subscription revenue) attests to this, too. So, who knows, maybe Noosphere will find its audience. I admire CEO’s Jane Ferguson intentions to keep hard-working journalists paid (she related those to Semafor), but I’m skeptical that this model is a misread of the audience moment we’re in.

What I’m more interested in, though, is what Noosphere represents: The Year of the Great Creator Journalism Bundling Play. I’m starting to see and hear about even more runs at consolidating creator model journalism monetization into bundles that could make it both easier for subscribers to get more value for their dollars and provide a way to network together content in a way that elevates and cross-promotes journalists to each other’s audiences.

This year we’ll see DOZENS of runs at making it work.

Birds of a feather flocking together. Imagine offerings of sports or politics-focused creators you can access for one flat fee, regardless of platform. The infrastructure for this kind of bundling are being worked out now by several folks I’ve talked to off the record – leveraging blockchain, federated servers and existing payment platforms like Stripe and Patreon.

In some cases, this will be for altruistic reasons: We’ll see journalists themselves figure out ways to band together in more collectives like Defector Media, Flaming Hydra or Range to create the kinds of companies they want to work within (while also making a buck). Or entrepreneurial journos like Johnny Harris, who has taken his YouTube success and is trying to grow it into a replicable video media company with New Press. In other cases, the motivation is purely about the chance to make that buck. Creator-model journalism is a rare growth space in media right now and so of course it’s a business opportunity. How long until Substack unveils a Medium-like platform fee for access to its walled garden?

My questions remain, though: Will bundling work? How do we avoid turning independent creator-model journalism into the next new media companies? What freedom (and profit) do independents lose if they sign on to a bundle?

“While subscription fatigue is real, I don't actually believe it will affect independent journalists anytime soon because the fanbase for every journalist and every new outlet is so strong and there's never going to be enough supply to fulfill the demand for news, information and analysis,” wrote Lex Roman of Journalists Pay Themselves this morning when we started talking about this in Slack. “At the same time, journalists themselves have expressed a desired to bundle their work so that it becomes even more accessible to a wider range of readers. The last three years have been huge for new worker-owned collectives. This year we will see more of them team up with subscription bundles.”

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not anti-bundle. I just need a ton more answers here.

I’d love to hear from you on this. Would you pay for a bundle? What kind? How much each month? If you’re a journalist, would you opt in to Noosphere or another bundle? Why? Why not?

KMF snapshot

I spent last week in Miami at the annual Knight Media Forum where I learned a ton, met and reconnected with very smart people working to build a bright future for journalism and moderated a panel called “Who Gets to be Called a journalist in 2025?” If you have 40 minutes to spare, click through for my conversation with Trusting News executive director Joy Mayer, Pew Research director Katerina Eva Matsa and content creator Becca Farsace.

the latest

• “I could see doing it for a while and being like, Okay, great, this got me famous or bumped up my paycheck, and now I can go do what I want to do.” - An anonymous NYT staffer on the brand’s search for a cohost of The Daily.

• Pew recently asked Americans who they think of when they hear the term “news influencer.” YouTuber Philip DiFranco topped the list, followed closely by a list of individuals including Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro and V Spehar, who shared their reaction with their audience.

• Chicago Public Media CEO Melissa Bell writes a refreshing piece in CJR about the need for institutional media to embrace content creators. Luckily, she’s in a position to do just that.

  

know things

• 53% of creators surveyed tell Patreon it’s harder to reach their followers today than five years ago. Why? It’s the platforms. (“57% of fans’ time on TikTok is spent watching work from creators they don’t follow.”) This and more nuggets in their annual State of Create report.

do something cool

• The deadline for The Next Challenge startup competition is coming up on March 18th. Awards of up to $50K each will be awarded in this year’s three divisions: The Future of Local News, News Tech and Open-Source Intelligence.

• The deadline is today (😱), but if you’re a member, LION is looking for community ambassadors to propose and lead 2025 peer groups – 2024’s groups included on dedicated to solopreneurs.

right?

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