Good morning. Congrats to creator-led sports media company Jomboy, which was recently immortalized in an episode of The Simpsons. YouTube views may fade, but being drawn in Simpson yellow is forever.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Vox Expands Creator Strategy in Hello Tefi Deal

Lifestyle and entertainment creator Estefanía Vanegas Pessoa (you know her as Hello Tefi) just signed with Vox Media as a special contributor—she’ll host a podcast and write a monthly advice column for The Cut.

Inside the deal: “We want this to be one of the defining culture shows out there, and we think Tefi is the perfect host for that,” Ray Chao, general manager of audio & digital video at Vox Media, told us. “She has a big fan base of people who follow her and we want them to become fans of the show, but we also see enormous potential beyond Tefi’s current follower base.”

And who is that current follower base? Since 2020, Tefi has built a following of over 2 million posting short-form culture and commentary videos.

Joining the Vox roster, which also includes creators like Marques Brownlee and Scott Galloway, could mean tapping into new audiences. Vox averages 36 million podcast downloads a month.

Here’s what Tefi gets out of this deal →

• Production resources like studio space, editors, and producers

• Business assistance including ad sales, marketing, distribution across Vox’s portfolio, and growth strategy

Zoom out: Podcasts continue to gain popularity on TVs, and the podcast market is expected to be worth $173 billion by 2032. Vox is betting that multimedia talent can utilize the medium as a foundational element of their businesses.

“When we think of podcasts today, they’re not just modern day talk shows replacing late night,” Chao said. “But for a creator they can channel a lot of their energy to building a great show, building an audience from that show, and from there can spin off a big business so we’re excited to partner with people and help them build content in that way.”

Learnings From the First Creator Sundance

Creator Camp held its first public event and film festival last weekend in Austin, Texas. So how did it go?

Run the numbers: 

• Over 1,100 creators, industry execs, and local artists showed up to watch nine creator-made short films and one feature.

• 50% of tickets were purchased in the three weeks before the event

• 4 sponsors supported the event, with Patreon as title sponsor

“We keep hearing from people here in Austin that it felt like the first SXSW, or the first Sundance. The energy mirrored those inaugural events,” Creator Camp cofounder Chris Duncan told us. 

Films like Natural Twenty, a comedy from YouTuber Aidan Gallagher, and Two Sleepy People, a dramatic feature from TikTok creator Baron Ryan, were screened and discussed with a live audience.

Looking ahead: Duncan said Creator Camp is in talks with various streaming services to distribute the festival short films. For the feature, Creator Camp wants to serve as distributor. “We’re starting to think through that strategy of how we can have a film started by internet creators be distributed by a team of internet creators, and go national,” Duncan said. 

For now, all films will be available to watch online next week for $10.

Sponsored by Spotter Studio

Would You Click on This YouTube Video?

It doesn’t exist—yet. This is one of the ideas Spotter Studio gave us in our last brainstorm.

And that’s exactly the question every creator has to answer before hitting record, writing a script, or spending hours editing.

Because on YouTube, if they don’t click, they don’t watch.

The best creators know: If you want to make hits, the process starts with the idea. The hook. The title and thumbnail.

That’s where Spotter Studio comes in.

It’s a tool built specifically for YouTube creators. It connects to your channel, analyzes your top-performing videos and combines that with years of data from the most successful channels to deliver personalized title and thumbnail ideas in seconds. Then you can use AI tools to quickly explore and develop those ideas into video concepts you’re ready to produce.

Spend 10 minutes with it—you’ll walk away with ideas worth making.

Press readers get 14 days of Spotter Studio free.

Inside YouTube’s TV Dinner

The setting: A YouTube dinner last night for creators, execs, and reporters (including the Publish team) to talk about the future of the platform.

The big question, asked by a NYT journalist: Do creators feel pressure from their representation to jump to Hollywood-style media? 

The answer: “Why would I build a show outside YouTube when I have an audience here, I own it, and could sell it down the line for $100 million?” comedian Adam Waheed, who’s repped by CAA, said. 

Waheed said he thought Hollywood would be the end game when he started on YouTube. But now with a following of 20+ million, earning 5 billion views in a single month, he’s less interested. 

🔥 Press Worthy

• TikTok and YouTube surpass Twitch in livestream views in Q1.

• The Las Culturistas podcast will air its annual Culture Awards on Bravo this year.

• YouTube now has a podcast tab and the option to loop VOD content on TVs.

• Fashion creator Becca Bloom, who has gained 2 million followers in less than four months, signs with UTA.

• Gunther the Rich Dog starts a content house with creators including Star Abelar and Austin Mollno.

• Viewstats launches a mobile app.

📚️ Thank You For Pressing Publish

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

• Read: Is culture’s obsession with creativity actually making us more creative? Writer Samuel Franklin discusses his new book, The Cult of Creativity, and how creativity became a virtue for businesses and artists alike.

• Watch: Challenge creator Socks created a life-size Minecraft world, complete with a robot dog, farm, and bell. 

• Listen: Fashion designer Bella Freud and designer Jonathan Anderson talk about personal style and the evolution of Anderson’s clothing brand, JW Anderson.