Good morning. Exactly three months from today, we’ll be in Brooklyn for Press Publish NYC—our one-day summit for the creator economy. 

92 days until we take the stage (not that we’re counting or anything), but you can get your ticket right now. Apply here to secure your spot, and we’ll see you in New York in no time.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen 

Inside a Profitable Creator Biz with $0 Ad Spend

“Two Christmases” and “Dad’s New Roommate” are both selling for upwards of $125 on eBay right now.

What does that mean? They’re both cards from the satirical Divorced Dads card game made by comedy creator Graeme Barrett. The price on the secondary market is 5x the going rate of starter packs on the game’s website.

Here’s how Barrett turned a cult following into a profitable creator business.

In 2023, Barrett started making short-form video sketches of collectible cards for divorced dads, like “drywall hole” and “gas station sunglasses.” The series went viral, and in 2024, Barrett turned the sketches into a playable game. 

• Barrett took inspiration from Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! to make a game that was easy to understand for beginners but had options to employ strategy and technique.

• “Divorced Dads has found a way to constantly reinvent itself, which has been an interesting challenge,” Barrett told us.

Which brings us to now: The game, which is sold exclusively on Barrett’s site, has its own Reddit forum, fan-run tournaments, and a large base of creators making Divorced Dads gameplay content. The business is profitable with zero paid ad spend.

“A big marker of success for me is that people are still enjoying it, still discovering it, and getting stuff daily, and I don’t have to promote it that often,” Barrett said.

Looking ahead: Barrett is reinvesting Divorced Dads revenue back into his business to make original art, trailers, and miniseries. And with the money the game is making, Barrett can now be more selective with brand deals and focus on developing other projects (like an animated show).

“It’s much better to have fans than followers,” Barrett said. “Ultimately the people who are fans of you will stick with you and enjoy what you do as you pivot and change, but followers will only really like you for one thing…It’s good to be constantly changing and adjusting because you’re going to be taking the right people with you.”

Overheard at The Information’s Creator Summit

Yesterday, we attended tech publication The Information’s day-long creator economy summit. Here’s what we heard from the business leaders and creators focused on the future of our industry.

On the growing importance of creators as the curators → “The point of media isn’t getting what you want, it’s learning what to want,” Substack CEO Chris Best said. He added that more than 50 creators are currently making over $1 million on Substack.

On whether creators should sell their content → “Creators are sitting on gold. In the next 3–5 years, premium content will be viewed on social platforms like YouTube and Facebook, so I’m going to continue making comedy for these [media].” comedy creator Adam Waheed said. He’s currently working on a 90-minute film to release on YouTube at the end of the year.

On the role creators can play for brands → “Ultimately we think the NBA is our competitive set. For a much lower cost, we can provide a similar engagement on reach and social,” Andrew Yaffe, CEO of DudePerfect, said. “We’re trying to deliver a best in class process—recaps, consumer lift studies. Those are some of the basics that have become an expectation in the industry when you work with Fortune 500 companies.”

On how platforms can optimize AI to help creators → “We want to use AI to increase human consumption of human creation,” Roman Wassenmüller, head of podcast business at Spotify, said. “All the tools we’re building are actually in a function to further reduce the barrier to create content and discover new audiences.”

Sponsored by Spotter Studio

Rule No. 1 of YouTube

Rule No. 1 of YouTube is simple: If they don’t click, they don’t watch.

That’s why we use Spotter Studio—the first software made to help YouTubers generate, refine, and sharpen ideas specifically designed for your channel. It connects to your channel, analyzes your top-performing videos, and combines that with data from the most successful channels to deliver personalized title and thumbnail ideas in seconds. 

Once you’ve locked in your packaging, Spotter Studio’s Outlier score helps you figure out which videos are working, so you can make more of them. 

Right now, you can get a full year of Spotter Studio for $99, or try it free for 14 days.

Platform Roundup: Mobile App Takeover

TikTok introduced new tools to customize For You Pages. Users can now filter keywords they don’t want to see and use a sliding scale to manage how often certain topics—like sports, travel, and nature—are shown in their feed. 

Twitch announced multiple new features at TwitchCon in Rotterdam over the weekend. Creators will soon be able to stream horizontal and vertical content simultaneously, plus stream in higher quality. 

Instagram Edits updated the platform—introducing five new transitions, increased precision for clip-cutting, and the ability to change volume on all clips at once.

➕ Community Tab

You might be wondering: What does a ticket to Press Publish NYC get you? Here’s a sneak peek →

• A curated lineup of speakers who are defining the future of the creator economy 🔮

• Impactful group workshops and tons of chances to meet potential collaborators 👀

• A live recording of The Colin and Samir Show with audience Q&A 🎙️

• A welcome party, food and drinks, and a few surprises along the way 🎉

We can’t wait to see you in Brooklyn on September 4. Apply here to get your ticket.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Theorist Media celebrates 10 years of Film Theory.

• Creator-led studio Dhar Mann brings on a new team, including former MrBeast and Warner Bros execs.

• TikTok bans the #SkinnyTok hashtag.

• CoryxKenshin announces Volume 2 of his manga, Monsters We Make.

• Tribeca Festival launches its UP NEXT creator program, featuring creators including Public Opinion and Eric Jeng.