Happy Friday and happy Earth Day. It’s a great day to go outside, take a walk, play fetch with your dog, or go touch grass in a non-ironic way.

–Hannah Doyle

MrBeast Covers Rolling Stone

The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is the first creator to be featured on the cover of the iconic magazine. It marks Rolling Stone’s first issue geared towards creators and spotlights up-and-coming creators and features an interview with TikToker and music artist Bella Poarch.

Here are some highlights from the 5,000+ word feature on MrBeast:

• MrBeast is building three content and production hubs in his hometown of Greenville, NC, aiming to be a hub for the creator economy. “Jimmy’s creating his own studio system here,” MrBeast LLC president Marc Hustvedt told the magazine.

• MrBeast’s most profitable videos are the gaming and reacts videos, which subsidize the highly produced videos like World’s Most Dangerous Escape Room and I Spent 50 Hours Buried Alive that incur $1 million on average in production costs per video. 

• He has a gym in his kitchen to motivate him to workout instead of snack and is getting a shower installed in his office at MrBeast LLC studio so he doesn’t have to go home. “I need to just obsess, grind, and keep going,” MrBeast said. “If you’re on an exponential growth curve, you don’t want to let it flatline.”

Our Take

This is a historic moment for creators. What's even more exciting is that in the near future there will be no need for another "Creator Issue"—every young artist to grace the Rolling Stone cover will undoubtedly get their start on social platforms. Keep an eye out for Colin and Samir as well in the full magazine hitting newsstands shortly. 

Andrew Callaghan’s Channel 5 Heads to Ukraine

The satirical man-on-the-street interview show took a more journalistic turn this week, interviewing the mayor of Lviv, Ukraine and Jake Hanrahan of grassroots media organization Popular Front.

In a recent conversation with a fan in Berlin, Callaghan spoke of his move towards more serious journalism, citing the videos covering the George Floyd protests as his transition point. "I decided, ‘ok I can leave the world of comedy reporting and actually cover things that I think have value,’ and especially because the mainstream news media was ignoring the voices of the protestors, particularly in Portland and Minneapolis, I'm pretty sure the same thing is probably happening in Ukraine."

Callaghan also spoke with Lviv citizens who shared the difficulties of everyday life among emergency shelter sirens and the complexities of explaining the war to children.

Channel 5 launched last year and was created by Andrew Callaghan, Nic Mosher, and Evan Gilbert-Katz following the termination of their popular show All Gas No Breaks. 

The Channel 5 YouTube channel has averaged nearly 130,000 subscribers a month since it started. Now at 1.5 million subscribers, it’s nearly reached the same number as All Gas No Breaks at its peak, 1.7 million. In addition to its large YouTube viewership, Channel 5 also exists on Patreon, where you can find exclusive interviews, photos, and a community Discord.

Our Take

Given the depth of access to sources, this change of pace towards journalistic interviews feels surprisingly seamless. The content shift could be a welcome evolution in Callaghan’s show, following on the heels of similar comedy-meets-journalism formats like The Colbert Report and John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight.

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TikTok Creator Competes on MasterChef AU

Food and recipe creator Montana Hughes is competing in the latest season of MasterChef Australia, which premiered earlier this week.

Hughes previously tried out for the show in 2019 but didn’t make the top 24. The following year she started a TikTok where she posted her cooking tips and recipes, and has since gained a following of over 200,000 with one video receiving over 8 million views. This year, MasterChef called on her to join the cast as the season’s youngest member at age 24.

Our Take

Traditional entertainment often prefers casting personalities who bring their own distribution to the table. Montana leveraged her TikTok following to make her a standout over candidates who don’t have their own built in fanbases and positioned herself to excel in the competition with creativity and presentation.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Emma Chamberlain appears on chef Claire Saffitz’s YouTube series Dessert Person.

• Ludwig is hosting the finale to his game show at the YouTube Theater in LA.

• LiveOnline is making a reality show on YouTube boxing.

• Mighty Networks is the platform creators use to build communities, sell memberships, and grow course sales.*

• MKBHD releases his own plug-in for Final Cut Pro.

*This is sponsored advertising content.

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