We often say Happy Friday up here. But for too many families in Texas and across the country, today isn’t a happy Friday. It’s another devastating day without their sons, daughters, mothers, friends. Our thoughts are with all those affected by the Uvalde shooting earlier this week. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is right— enough.

–Kinsey Grant (stepping in for Hannah Doyle today)

The Faces of Late Night TV Can’t Seem to Agree on the Creator Economy

Last week, Jimmy Kimmel delivered a searing roast during Disney’s presentation at Upfronts, the annual congregation of TV networks looking to sell commercial space to advertisers for the upcoming season. After tearing down all the big networks (including his own), Kimmel put YouTube in his crosshairs.

“YouTube shouldn’t be allowed to have an upfront, YouTube is not television,” Kimmel said. “YouTube is medicine we use to tranquilize our children. And are you really going to give money to the a**holes who came up with the ‘skip ad’ button?”

Kimmel’s traditionalist point-of-view feels at odds with the other big headline out of late night this week: SiriusXM acquired Conan O’Brien’s podcast network and media company, Team Coco, for a reported $150 million.

Conan himself is locked in for a five-year talent contract, but Sirius is getting much more than The Hair™. As a full-fledged creator-led network, Team Coco brings its flagship show, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, plus newer star-powered titles like Why Won’t You Date Me? with Nicole Byer and Literally! With Rob Lowe. All in, Team Coco says the network brings in 180 million downloads a year.

Team Coco’s evolution follows a path similar to the likes of other creator-led networks spun up from singular stars—Conan expanded to Team Coco just as Rhett and Link with Mythical, Cody Ko & Noel Miller with TMG, and Binging with Babish with his Babish Culinary Universe.

Our Take

Despite what Kimmel might have said about YouTube, the proof is in the dealflow. Once creators, whether YouTube-focused or otherwise, gain their footing as trustworthy voices for their communities, they earn the right to become curators—a position they can use to attract other great talent onto their own standalone networks.

New York Nico Shows Focus Can Pay Off

If you’re a New Yorker or one of New York Nico’s 900K Instagram followers, you might recognize his work telling stories of some of the zaniest people in the five boroughs. He’s collaborated with Jerry Seinfeld and Ilana Glazer in an MTA bid to get New Yorkers back on public transit, worked with Post Malone, and created a short film set to debut at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival next month.

The Instagram creator (real name: Nicolas Heller) who calls himself the “unofficial talent scout of New York City,” has signed with United Talent Agency to expand his work across TV, film, and digital media.

Nico has simultaneously leveraged his skills to build revenue off-platform, too—he has a production company, Heller Films, that makes shorts and documentaries. Plus he’s directed spots for all-star brands like Google, Nike, Mastercard, and Jägermeister.

Our Take

It’s Friday, why not two takes?

From a monetization standpoint, Nico’s work shows the value of building revenue off-platform, especially if you’re an Instagram-first creator. Meta seems to be largely uninterested in helping its Instagram creators monetize, so carving out other paths is essential.

From a content standpoint, it’s tempting as a creator to consider your total addressable market as the entire internet. But as Nico’s success story shows, when you focus on your corner of the world, the entire world can open up.

Sponsored by Jellysmack

One Content Category Dominates in Average View Time…

We’ll give you a clue… 🕵️‍♀️

It’s true crime and mystery content. Jellysmack found that true crime and mystery content over-performed in several key metrics:

• 9 of the top 10 creators by average view time are true crime and mystery creators

• Viewers are 55% more likely to watch a true crime video to the end relative to the all-content average

• 14% are more likely to watch past the one-minute mark relative to other content categories

Find insights like this—as well as creator profiles, original research, and trends shaping the industry—on Jellysmack’s new blog, Creator Post. Make sure to hit subscribe while you're there.

YouTube’s New Feature Raises Questions for Creators

Last week, shortly after debuting a slew of advertiser-friendly features as part of its annual Brandcast advertiser showcase, YouTube announced another batch of updates—this time, affecting its flagship product.

The tl;dr: The YouTube player will soon allow viewers to jump straight to a video’s most popular moments—kind of like retention graphs for public consumption. Those popular moments will be ID’d by YouTube as the bits that are replayed most often, and they’ll be displayed within a video’s progress bar.

Our Take

Part of YouTube’s magic is its unique ability to provide a fairly distraction-free viewing experience for long-form content, as opposed to TikTok or Instagram, where scrolling and skipping are second nature.

That’s why YouTube creators have been so successful in forging deeper relationships with their audiences. But if YouTube begins encouraging viewers to watch in shorter bits, creators could potentially lose that trademark depth—and the value of retention data altogether.

Join the conversation with Colin and Samir on Twitter.

🔥 PRESS WORTHY

• Logan Paul and KSI’s ‘Prime Hydration’ sports drink will be the first influencer-led brand to sponsor a NASCAR team.

• Alex Cooper tells the New York Times that she wants to have the No. 1 show in the world.

• Influence Weekly is a free newsletter that covers the news and trends shaping influencer marketing.

• Halsey says their label is withholding new music until they “fake a viral moment on TikTok.”

• Join a global community of creators turning their knowledge into scalable online businesses.*

• MARKIPLIER talks about his journey as a creator on Anthony Padilla’s show.

• TikTok is launching LIVE creator subscriptions this week.

*This is sponsored advertising content.