Good morning. Coming off the heels of his platform’s massive contracts with xQc and Amouranth, Kick CEO Eddie Craven promised this week that the controversial platform’s 95/5 split on subscriber revenue will “definitely never be touched,” which has raised more questions about Kick’s viability in the long term. What do you think—can it last?

For today: We’re continuing our coverage from VidCon. Let’s dive into it.

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

Creators Are Driving the Next Wave of News Media

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that young people prefer to get their news from creators and celebrities instead of journalists. Last week at VidCon, that idea crystallized even further.

To note: TikTok is becoming the fastest growing social platform for keeping up with current events, with 20% of 18- to 24-year-olds turning to the app for news (up five percentage points from last year).

So how are creators shaping the future of news media? TikTok creators Dave Jorgenson of the Washington Post, Jack Corbett of NPR’s Planet Money, Sophia Smith Galer of Vice, and Vitus “V” Spehar of Under The Desk News weighed in during a VidCon panel discussion.

They’re putting a face to the news. Creators use their likeness (and humanity) to tell a story. “We’ve reached peak news explainer and our audience experiences news avoidance,” Smith Galer said on the panel. “So I like to use [TikTok] as an experimental ground for personal and professional, posting videos on both but remaining impartial—you can be impartial but have strong values.”

And drawing the line between journalism and edutainment, especially on social platforms where entertainment and news can appear together in a single scroll. “I’ll only cover [news] if there is a core concept,” Corbett said. “Like, you can talk about GameStop, but it’s actually about a short squeeze. I’ll make videos through the idea of explaining a core concept.”

They’re diving in the comments section. As more people flock to TikTok for news, the social platform has become a place for the creators to discuss the context of current events with their viewers. “I spend way more time interacting in the comments than I do reporting,” Spehar said. “There’s times when I’m the creator and the community member.”

Zoom out: “Creators are just as much the media as the media,” social media reporter Taylor Lorenz said in a recent interview. “Brands like the New York Times are the old media and we’re moving into a world that’s dominated by a creator-driven ecosystem.”

Minecraft Creators Draw Biggest VidCon Crowds for Second Straight Year

Minecraft creators including Dream, Karl Jacobs, and Ranboo drew the biggest crowds at VidCon this year, again welcoming thousands of fans to the convention center’s main stages.

During his notably casual panel with fellow members of “The Dream Team,” Dream—wearing his trademark mask—acted as an off-the-cuff moderator as creators including Sapnap, HannahxxRose, and Skeppy chatted about their experiences playing Minecraft together.

Who was in the crowd?

• Fans of all ages—plenty of kids with their parents, plus adult Minecraft fans.

• Many in attendance wore a VidCon-exclusive “Dream Team” rainbow beanie that drew massive lines to purchase starting on the convention’s first day.

Big picture: The connections Minecraft creators share with their fans are significant. For example, offhand references to in-universe characters (such as Dream’s cat, Patches, who is often heard in the background of the creator’s livestreams) elicited massive cheers from the audience.

Worth noting: A small crowd of VidCon attendees gathered with signs referencing past claims that Dream sent inappropriate messages to minors. Dream denied the allegations last October with a lengthy response.

Sponsored by TubeBuddy

One Creator’s Journey from English Teacher to YouTuber

Danie Jay spent her early 20s chasing her dreams as a digital nomad. Living in Vietnam and with no money to spare, she taught English online to make ends meet.

“Fast forward a few years, and my channel retired me from teaching English as I mastered the ins and outs of YouTube,” said Danie, who’s built a small-but-mighty audience of 30,000 YouTube subscribers. To hear more about…

• Her retention rate goal for each video

• How she optimizes her videos for search with TubeBuddy

• Her advice to aspiring creators

Check out this article.

How One Creator Reckons with Child Content Ethics

Parenting content has evolved from mommy blogs into a multibillion-dollar industry—and it’s little wonder why:

• U.S. moms control anywhere between 77% and 85% of household purchases.

• According to parenting media brand Mom 2.0, there are around 4.5 million parenting creators in the U.S.

The big question, given all that influence: The ethical boundaries around creators posting content including children—or “sharenting”—has been hotly debated the last few months. Is profiting from your kids’ likeness fair? Should kids have a say? Is it dangerous?

We spoke to lifestyle creator Alison Kuch about her plans as a soon-to-be parent at VidCon. The key learnings:

On setting boundaries with content: “The things I’m willing to share are my personal experience, and I’m putting out things women would resonate with,” Kuch told us. “When it relates to my husband or our child, we want to keep our baby very private, especially when it comes to health and personal experiences.”

…and workflow: “My child will be my top priority, and my husband feels the same way, but content creation is a career. Many people go off to work or have their husbands take the role [of caregiving],” Kuch said. “We’re still figuring out how it’ll play out.”

FYI: Several of Kuch’s contemporaries, including creators Bobbi Althoff and Laura Fritz, have been vocal about their decisions to stop posting their children’s faces on TikTok.

🔥 Press Worthy

• TikTok introduces a UGC feature that lets creators submit video ads to brands and receive performance-based rewards.

• Through their program built exclusively for creators, Creators.Store helps you enrich your online merch brand name and ditch the lengthy unmemorable URLs for something clean and simple like www.yourname.store.*

• Rolling Stone argues why creator-led brands are poised to dominate the Fortune 500.

• YouTube receives an open letter from Congress criticizing the platform’s decision to allow election misinformation.

• Issa Rae’s Raedio media company is launching its first talk show.

• The Times of India writes on the difficulties of relying on third-party creator economy platforms as the country’s government bans apps due to worries about national security.

_{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

🎁 Share the Press

When you refer new readers to the Press, you earn merch from the Press Publish shop.

*Here’s your unique link to share: https://news.thepublishpress.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

You currently have 0 referrals. You're only 5 away from receiving Stickers.

*Please do not use fake email addresses — they will not qualify as referrals. Thank you!