Good morning. Netflix revealed the viewer data for 18,000+ of its shows and films for the first time. The most-viewed title during the first half of this year? Season One of The Night Agent with over 812 million hours watched. We’re not sure of a couple things here: 1) how important these numbers really are to Netflix’s business and 2) how people watched Emily in Paris for 161 million hours.

P.S. We’ve got a special Publish Press project launching today—keep reading for the details on one of our biggest series ever.

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

YouTube is the most-used social platform among U.S. teens by a wide margin, according to a new survey from Pew Research. 93% of teens use YouTube, followed by TikTok and Instagram at 63% and 59%, respectively.

Perspective: These findings are from an online survey of around 1,400 teens ages 13–17.

More highlights from Pew:

The creator POV: Some are saying it’s a sign for creators to double down on YouTube. Others have suggested that the data is reflective of a larger disconnect between what advertisers think works and what social media users are actually doing. The majority of creator ad spending goes to Instagram and TikTok, according to findings from Insider Intelligence—even as YouTube has clearly pulled away from the rest of the pack with the important younger consumer groups. 

To close out the year, The Publish Press staff has hand-picked six creators who we feel have made an outsized impact on our industry in 2023.

Today, we’re revealing our first two Staff Picks. You’ll learn more about the rest throughout the next week here in the newsletter and on our Staff Picks site.

We’re kicking things off with Kevin Espiritu and Sam Denby.

Kevin Espiritu (aka @epicgardening) has built a loyal audience of 8+ million making content about gardening and homesteading…and it’s working. His gardening supplies business will bring in $30 million this year alone. 

Why we chose him: He’s redefining creator M&A. In January, Epic Gardening acquired a 28-year-old seed packet company called Botanical Interest. The move unlocked a whole new future for Espiritu’s business—and we’re telling you how in our full story right here.

Sam Denby (aka @wendoverproductions) has been a pioneer in edutainment, from beloved documentaries to the hit Jet Lag series. 

Why we chose him: When he was named chief content officer of creator-owned streaming service Nebula earlier this year, he started paving a path toward a new way for creators to produce premium, original content that’s taking on the broader entertainment industry. More on how, exactly, Denby did it right here.

FYI: This project is a partnership between The Publish Press and .Store. Learn more about .Store on the Staff Picks 2023 home base.

Moonbug Entertainment, the studio behind sing-a-long kids’ series CoComelon, laid off 30 employees (5% of its workforce) in October—even as viewership on its YouTube channels has increased 12% over the last year, Bloomberg reported.

Context: With over 168 million subscribers, the main CoComelon YouTube channel is the third-biggest in the world, behind only T-Series and MrBeast. Moonbug has translated this YouTube popularity into several spinoff channels and licensed video compilations to Netflix (the latter made CoComelon the third-most-popular streaming TV show in the U.S. in 2022).

Why these layoffs matter: They show even CoComelon isn’t immune to an industry-wide slowdown in advertising that began in 2022.

Big picture: Money isn’t necessarily disappearing from the creator space, even if channels as big as CoComelon are being forced to lean down. YouTube ad revenue grew 4% annually in the second quarter of this year, according to Digiday, and its Partner Program paid creators over $16 billion in 2022.

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