Good morning. 7,200 Swifties have migrated to X alternative Bluesky over the last month, utilizing its servers to develop their own Taylor Swift-themed domain name for user verification. Does this mean Blusky is the ultimate Twitter-killer? The jury’s still out, but an approval from one of the internet’s largest fandoms is a decent start.

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

Former ‘Business Insider’ Editor-in-Chief Launches Video Venture

Former Business Insider editor-in-chief and journalist Nicholas Carlson is launching a new media startup called Dynamo. His inspirations? MrBeast, Cleo Abram, and Dropout.

“We’re not pivoting to video…we’re cannonballing into the deep end of video,” Carlson told The New York Times.

He thinks there’s an untapped niche on YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn: high-quality business journalism.

• Dynamo aims to reach its target audience of “ambitious, career-oriented” viewers through “cinematic” video stories.

• They’ll avoid daily news and political coverage, focusing on “evergreen” topics that (similar to the videos on the aforementioned Abram’s show, Huge if True) are still relevant years after they’re published.

• Carlson believes that the key to success will be managing a lean team, keeping video production costs in line with their revenue potential.

Big picture: These days, digital media companies are approaching video content in different ways. Some, like satire media brand Reductress, are diversifying their revenue by driving fans from short-form TikTok and Instagram uploads to workshops and merchandise sales. Others, like entertainment blog Giant Freakin Robot, are ditching websites altogether in favor of publishing video essays on YouTube.

Even after raising $3.4 million to launch Dynamo, Carlson acknowledged the path forward wouldn’t be easy. “Now I just have to figure out how to do [this] profitably when so many others with hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal [like Vice and BuzzFeed] could not,” he told The New York Times.

Who is Kai Trump?

Kai Trump, the granddaughter of President-elect Donald Trump, uploaded an election night vlog to her YouTube channel this week, showing a behind the scenes look from Mar-a-Lago with figures like Elon Musk, and Donald’s son Barron. 

The video received over 1 million views in under 24 hours—and it’s only the fourth upload on her channel. 

Zoom in: Kai, a University of Miami golf team commit, launched her YouTube channel last month. Her content primarily focuses on golf, and she regularly collaborates with YouTube golf creators like Grant Horvat and Garrett Clark. 

Her viewership has grown quickly across the board, with over 150 million views on her TikTok account in the last four months.

Zoom out: In the election aftermath, both political parties are assessing what media worked and what didn’t, from algorithm distribution to what formats resonate with voters. Republicans are continuing to lean into casual formats like vlogs and podcasts—in Trump’s case, that extends to the whole family—while Democrats are looking for what personalities they can platform to grow a strong audience for the party.

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Data from Spotter Studio showed us that videos with the words “24 hours”, “billionaires” and “Tik Tok” overperformed for our audience in Nov. 2024.

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How News Platforms Influence Voting Preference

Where Americans get their news heavily influences how they vote, according to a new study from Politico. 

By the numbers →

• 70% of newspaper readers voted Democrat.

• 55% of those who got their news from YouTube/Google voted Republican.

Big picture: Politico found that more adults got their news from social platforms this election season than the last one, as a greater portion of Gen Z was eligible to vote. 32% of adults kept up with the news via YouTube— though TikTok saw the biggest jump in news consumption, with 17% of adults getting news from the platform (up from 3% in 2020).

➕ Community Tab

We're polling you, our Publish readers, about your experiences, POVs, and businesses to finish out the year with insights into the future of the creator industry. This poll is part of an ongoing series we'll share in December.

🔥 Press Worthy

• TikTok food creator The Pasta Queen gets her own show on Amazon Prime.

• Addison Rae is nominated for a Grammy for her feature on Charli XCX’s Brat album.

• Felecia Freely, the creator behind 'Lectures on Tap,' chatted with us on how to bring your digital community together IRL.*

• Kai Cenat breaks Twitch’s sub record 11 days into his subathon.

• President-elect Donald Trump is attempting to halt the TikTok ban, according to The Washington Post.

• Twitch streamers say their accounts have been demonetized after the platform introduced new rules around “politics and sensitive social issues.”

_{*This is sponsored advertising content.}