Good morning. Yesterday, Instagram announced the first change to their written logo in 10 years—moving away from a cursive script to a more modern font.

The immediate backlash took us back to the Great Instagram Logo Freakout of 2016, and we wonder if Instagram will stand by the decision or fold under pressure.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

Alex Cooper just received a valuation on her media company Unwell that likely has her feeling anything but. 

Media investment firm WTSL, led by former WME chairman Patrick Whitesell, invested an undisclosed amount into Unwell—but shared that the funding brings Unwell’s valuation to $500M.

Inside the deal: This is Unwell’s first outside investment. Cooper said the company intends to use the funding for growth and acquisitions—though her first move was shuttering her CPG hydration brand with Nestlé. 

For reference, Unwell is now valued at more than Steven Bartlett’s media company ($425M), but still far behind Beast Industries’ $5B valuation.

Why it matters: The deal signals what the next generation of media companies will look like—creator-owned, and increasingly backed by institutional money that once flowed only to legacy media. Over the past eight years, Cooper has built a business that’s made her the highest-valued woman in the creator economy. 

In the last year alone, Unwell launched an in-house marketing agency taking on clients like Google, produced a Hulu documentary, and signed a book adaptation deal with Netflix. SiriusXM (which Cooper signed a $125M deal with in 2024) also pays Unwell $30M per year to handle distribution and ad sales.

“Unwell shows the potential of creator-founded media companies to evolve beyond monetizing an individual creator’s audience and build enduring, multi-platform businesses at scale,” Whitesell told us via email.

This week, a federal appeals court denied a request from Meta, Google, and TikTok to appeal litigation involving more than 3K social media addiction lawsuits, allowing the cases to move forward. The lawsuits were filed by states, municipalities, school districts, and individuals.

Why it matters: The cases target how platforms are designed—from recommendation algorithms to engagement features—rather than specific user posts. 

Historically, platforms have relied on Section 230, which broadly protects them from being held liable for what its users post. But the appeals court ruled that Section 230 is a defense against liability, not immunity from being sued—meaning the companies can’t use it to stop these cases before they proceed.  

It’s the latest escalation in a legal fight we’ve been tracking since March, when a California jury found Meta and Google liable for the decline of a young woman’s mental health. In July, four states sought $1.4T in penalties and damages from Meta in related litigation—nearly the company's entire market value at the time. 

What’s next: If more cases survive, platforms may have to change how they recommend content, verify ages, and keep users engaged.

And that could have major implications for creators. As our own Samir Chaudry told us in March, “All of these things would be a net positive for society, but would dramatically change how the creator economy works today.”

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Earlier this week, we reported on YouTube’s largest Partner Program change since 2018—doubling the viewership requirements to monetize. We asked what you thought of the new policy, and replies flooded our inbox.

Here’s a few standouts:

“I think this could be a good way to push away low-effort YouTube accounts (i.e. AI slop) and incentivize human YouTube creators and podcasts to work even harder to earn monetization status,” Stephen Frost, creator marketing freelancer, said.

“I have an animation/illustration storytime channel that’s fairly small and definitely not monetized, and there is no way I’m getting anywhere near the 8K watch hours,” art creator Paula Pototschnig said. “[...] If YouTube did this to get rid of the slop, I think it’s going to massively backfire.”

“I think the worst part is requiring 10M Shorts views every 90 days,” pop culture creator Arman Zaidi said, referring to YouTube’s new requirements to stay monetized. “I get about 7–8M views on Shorts in 90 days, which helps pay for editors and channel costs, about $2,000 - $2,500. [...] Knowing that I generate that amount and will not be credited unless I get 10M is actually insane.”

The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.