Good morning. Facebook announced its new Content Monetization beta today, merging its previous revenue-sharing formats (in-stream ads, Ads on Reels, and its Performance bonus) into one program.

The company says it’s paid creators more than $2 billion for videos, Reels, photo, and text posts in the last year. We’re curious: Hit reply and let us know if you’ve found success generating revenue on Facebook.

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

AI Startup Calliope Launches ‘License to Scrape’ Program

Some of the world’s largest tech companies (including Apple, NVIDIA, and Google) have reportedly trained their generative AI models on YouTube creators’ content—without the creators’ knowledge or explicit permission.

Now, content licensing startup Calliope Networks is tackling the problem head-on with “License to Scrape,” a new program with a “legal and simple” process for tech companies to pay creators for their content, Calliope CEO Dave Davis told Wired.

Catch up quick: These types of content licensing deals aren’t new. Noteworthy publishers and tech companies including Reddit, Dotdash Meredith, and Time Inc. have struck deals this year allowing AI firms to use their content to train models.

Creators, however, have largely been excluded from those tie-ins, leading to public frustration from industry veterans like Marques Brownlee and Hank Green.

Enter: License to Scrape. Here’s how it works →

• YouTube creators sign a contract with Calliope, which then sublicenses their videos out to AI companies to train their models.

• The AI companies pay a subscription fee for access to Calliope creators’ bundled content.

• Calliope takes a percentage of the licensing fees and the rest goes to creators.

Worth noting: Davis is early in the creator recruitment process, and he estimates his startup will require “a minimum of 25,000 to 50,000 hours of YouTube content” to entice AI companies.

Big picture: Platforms are taking different approaches to compensating creators when their work is utilized in AI training. In a recent blog post, YouTube said it supports creators “collaborating with third-party companies” (such as Calliope), while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that creators and publishers “tend to overestimate the value of their specific content” for training AI—and Meta would abstain from using creators’ content if they demanded it do so.

Taylor Lorenz Leaves Washington Post to Start ‘User Mag’

Tech and creator economy journalist Taylor Lorenz has left The Washington Post to start a new publication called User Magazine on Substack.

Lorenz plans to “pursue the type of reporting” on internet culture “that has become increasingly difficult to do” within the structure of traditional media organizations, she wrote in her announcement post on Tuesday.

How she got here: Since 2017, Lorenz has reported on the creator world for several outlets including The Daily Beast and The New York Times.

• She published her first book, Extremely Online (a “social history of the internet”), in 2023 and spun out a podcast called Power User earlier this year.

• Lorenz began writing a new column on Substack in July and has grown her email list to over 35,000 subscribers.

So what makes User Mag different? Lorenz said going independent lets her prioritize the “interactive relationship” she shares with her audience on creator platforms at a time when she believes “the era of faux neutrality” is over.

“I will always be upfront and honest about my perspectives and where I’m coming from…this transparency is, to me, the essence of trust in journalism,” she wrote.

Zoom out: Lorenz joins other media veterans (including Mehdi Hasan and Oliver Darcy) who have left traditional outlets in recent months to start independent businesses on newsletter platforms such as Substack and Beehiiv.

User Mag will feature free and paid newsletter tiers at launch, an effective strategy for some of Lorenz’s peers—Hasan’s Zeteo newsletter reached 31,000 paid subscribers and $3 million in annual revenue in just four months.

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John Oliver Criticizes HBO’s YouTube Strategy

John Oliver, the host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, called out the network on Monday for its decision to upload segments from his upcoming season to YouTube four days after they air.

“What I love about having the show on YouTube is that we can reach beyond HBO subscribers…I would rather they did it straight after the show the way we’ve always done it,” Oliver told The New York Times.

Zoom in: Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns HBO) instituted the new delayed clip upload schedule to encourage viewers to sign up for its streaming service, Max, Variety reported in February.

Worth noting: Creators including The Try Guys and Wendover Productions have found success by releasing their premium content on creator-owned streaming platforms before uploading select videos or segments to YouTube.

➕ Community Tab

ICYMI: We released The Publish Paper: Volume 2 in June. Now, our latest print zine might be available in a store near you.

We’ve stocked limited copies of the paper in these three locations:

• magCulture: 270 St John St, London EC1V 4PE

• Iconic Magazines: 188 Mulberry St, New York, NY

• Small World Books: 1407 Ocean Front Walk, Los Angeles, CA

Pick up the zine in stores starting today—and make sure to tag @colinandsamir with a photo of your copy.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Instagram launches “Best Practices,” an in-app tool that gives personalized tips to creators on the platform.

• Travel creators Eamon & Bec bring back their podcast after a three-year hiatus.

• This software helps you make better titles and thumbnails.*

• Skibidi Toilet toys are now available in Walmart and Target stores.

• Twitch streamer Ironmouse sets a new platform record for the highest number of active subscribers.

• The Onion is relaunching its “Onion News Network” YouTube series—with former MSNBC host Joshua Johnson anchoring..

_{*This is sponsored advertising content.}