Good morning. Did you tune into the Streamys this weekend? The “Hottest Nerds on the Internet”—I mean, my bosses Colin and Samir—presented Charli D’Amelio with the award for top lifestyle creator. They were also nominated (and snubbed) in the education category, but hey, we’ll get 'em next time.

–Hannah Doyle

Brad Leone Leaves the BA Test Kitchen

It’s Alive with Brad Leone is, well, no longer alive.

Condé Nast, Bon Appétit’s parent company, confirmed last week that the Test Kitchen star is transitioning out of a full-time role with the food magazine. 

The public statement aligns with a weeks-long Reddit theory of Leone’s departure that began to take shape after Leone shared in a recent Instagram story that he’s starting his own YouTube channel in 2023. 

FYI: Leone joins many other Test Kitchen departees, who left en masse during the Bon Appétit offshoot’s unraveling in summer 2020, mostly due to pay disparities and mistreatment of POC staffers. 

Chris Morocco is the last one standing of the old guard of BA’s on-camera heyday. Ten others—Claire Saffitz, Sohla El-Waylly, Priya Krishna, Molly Baz, Alex Delany, Carla Lalli Music, Amiel Stanek, Gaby Melian, Rick Martinez, and Christina Chaey have left, mostly to strike it out on their own as solo creators. For example: 

• Saffitz and Baz both have popular YouTube channels and cookbooks.

• El-Waylly and Krishna now make regular appearances on NYT Food.

Our Take

Old media’s biggest advantage has always been its stamp of approval—having a legacy publication like Bon Appétit on your résumé opens big, important doors, and that’s partly why old media has been able to get away with low pay and discrimination for so long. 

But with increasing opportunities to go independent—especially on platforms like YouTube and Patreon—emerging talent has more choices. Now, if the old media don’t put their money where their mouths are, they truly have something to lose—and talent like Leone is proof. 

Is BeReal Dead?

⚠️ We’ve officially passed the novelty stage ⚠️ 

Despite earning Apple’s “App of the Year” award, BeReal is starting to lose its lofi luster. According to a recent report, only 9% of its active Android users open the app on a regular basis, despite topping 53 million downloads across Apple and Android phones worldwide.

Context: BeReal launched in 2020 and really hit its stride in the spring of this year, growing its monthly users by 315% from January to April and maxing at 3 million downloads in May alone.

Why the standstill? BeReal has yet to ship any meaningful new features, despite Instagram and TikTok copying the app’s core premise. And though brands like Chipotle and e.l.f. are using it to engage fans, neither BeReal nor its users have found a scalable way to monetize.

Our Take

It’s clear that BeReal wants to be the anti-Instagram—so much so that it didn’t set itself up for scale or upgrades.

That likely means that creators who make their businesses on social platforms aren’t going to waste time on BeReal for any reason other than fun.

Sponsored by Jellysmack

Congrats to This Year's Streamy Winners

Dubbed “the Oscars of the web” by Vanity Fair, the yearly award show celebrates excellence in online video and the creators behind it in over 45 categories.

With an award presented by our very own Colin and Samir, Sunday night’s event was an exciting celebration of our industry and Jellysmack is here to recognize and support all of the winners—especially those who took home some of the night's top prizes: 

• MrBeast won the Creator of the Year award as well as the Creator for Social Good award for his #TeamSeas collaboration with Mark Rober.

• RDCWorld: This hilarious crew nabbed a big win in the Comedy category.

• Ryan Trahan: The one penny wonder took home the coveted Breakout Creator award.

Read more about the Streamys on Jellysmack’s blog.

Curious how you can Go Bigger as a creator? Get in touch.

Ludwig Hits One-Year Mark with YouTube Gaming

A year ago, the streamer made waves for being among the first creators to leave Twitch and sign an exclusive deal with YouTube Gaming (YTG).

At the time, YTG was still in its infancy—its livestreams weren’t as high-quality as Twitch’s, but it offered better deals. Streamers like Ludwig were quick to take the bait.

Exclusivity deals like this one have provided Ludwig with the financial stability to pursue non-gaming content, which he has taken advantage of in full with his brands Offbrand and Swipe.

Our Take

This year, Twitch has taken several Ls with numerous struggles that will be hard to recover from. And though YouTube still has improvements to make on its livestream capabilities, its treatment of creators makes it a strong gaming contender moving forward.

👀 Creator Moves

• Ryan Holiday is hiring a research assistant for his newsletter, The Daily Stoic. To apply, email [email protected] with three writing samples.

• GothamChess is looking for a designer with experience designing website logos, icons, and vector art. Email your resume and portfolio samples to [email protected].

• The Editing Podcast is hiring an editor to help with video intros. Must be an expert in editing software like Premiere and Final Cut and willing to collaborate.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Issa Rae launches a program to support Black creators.

• MrBeast is coming to Fortnite.

• The full list of Streamy winners.

• TikTok’s Pasta Queen signs with CAA.

• Good Good Golf loses two teammates.

• Blacktail Studio launches a second channel.

• Future Social ups your social media skills with weekly case studies and tips from an expert in the field.

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