Good morning. Google launched its updated AI video generation model, Veo 3, and users are already putting it to the most important test of all: Will Smith eating spaghetti.

P.S. We’re off for Memorial Day on Monday. See you back here Wednesday!

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Inside Airrack’s $100K Editing Competition

Challenge creator Eric “Airrack” Decker is looking for his next YouTube video editor by hosting a global editing competition in partnership with creator job site Roster. Here’s how it works → 

• Participants will have 10 days to complete a creative video edit that reflects Decker’s fast-paced style. 

• The winner will have the opportunity to take on a full-time position on Airrack’s team with a starting salary of $100K with a $2K cash bonus.

Airrack joins other creators like fitness creator Alaias Bertrand and gaming streamer Sparkles who have hosted competitions to find their next editor. 

The goal? To drum up excitement and find the best talent. “It’s wild how hard it is [to find a video editor],” Decker told us via email. “Great YouTube editors are self-taught, global, and often trying to make content on their own. Traditional film school editors usually have to unlearn a ton to work in this space. And there’s no centralized ‘hub’ for YouTube editing talent. So it’s not just about skill, it’s about finding the right mindset, the right intuition for what makes content work online. That’s rare.” 

Here’s what Decker is looking for: Someone with at least five years of experience editing YouTube videos, with advanced knowledge of Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. 

• While Decker’s channel engagement is up (he’s gained 40 million views and 100K subscribers in the last 30 days), he’s more interested in storytelling as a metric. 

• “We’re not using views or likes as metrics. It’s all qualitative. We care about [the] story,” Decker told us. “Can you take our footage and craft something that pulls people in? Can you use visuals, pacing, and structure to create something compelling?”

Looking ahead: Decker, whose team is mostly based in the US, is looking forward to growing a global network. So far, over 400 editors have applied.

“We know not everyone will win or get hired, but we’re excited to build relationships through this,” Decker said. “This competition isn’t just about now, it’s about discovering people we might collaborate with years from now. Expanding our circle. Investing in the community. That’s the real win.”

Ludwig Brainstorms Channel Rebrand on Livestream

Streamer Ludwig Ahgren’s content has been attracting creators known as “clip farmers,” fan channels that record and upload clips of Ahgren’s ongoing livestreams. Some fan channels upload clips before Ahgren’s stream is even over—and gain revenue along with hundreds of thousands of views.  

Ahgren’s solution? Work with them. He offers to hire a few of the channels to clip for him.

“The reason people are watching these fan channels is not because they don’t want me to get the money or viewership,” Ahgren said on his stream. “They’re doing a service that I’m not doing.”

And that’s opening the door to rebooting growth. Ahgren said on the stream that he’s gained the fewest monthly subs in four years this May. His POV on why? After his Japan series, Tip to Tip, viewers are not connecting as much with his new content following such a high-quality series.

He lands here: “Ludwin is the slop channel, and Ludwig is the channel with higher quality content,” he said. By posting clips of his streams on his secondary channel, he can 1) meet the needs of fans who want to watch specific segments of the stream while also 2) reserving high quality off-stream content for the main channel.

Ulta Is Paying Employees to Make Beauty Content

Cosmetic retailer Ulta Beauty introduced the second cohort of its Ulta Beauties ambassador program—an internal influencer campaign designed to reward store associates for making content with Ulta’s products.

“We knew we had an untapped superpower with our [store] associates,” Stacy Coblentz, associate manager of Ulta Beauty’s associate ambassador program, told Glossy. “They know what’s happening before we do.” 

How it works: Ulta Beauties are paid by Ulta to post at least two Ulta-approved videos per month to their socials. Additional perks of the program include PR, paid trips to events, and social media education opportunities with TikTok and Meta. Several creators in the program have gained north of 10K followers since joining.

Big picture: While many retailers—like Best Buy, Walmart, and Lululemon—have affiliate programs to reward creators for promoting their products, Ulta is one of the only brands that views its own employees as creators.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Nick DiGiovanni launches a recipe website and newsletter.

• Alix Earle is on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.

• Andrew Callaghan buys back his show, All Gas No Brakes, from parent company Doing Things Media.

• TikTok releases a SoundCloud integration.

• Crunchyroll is hosting its annual Anime Awards on Sunday. 

• Kai Cenat’s Streamer University is in session.

📚️ Thank You For Pressing Publish

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

• Read: For The Cut, financial columnist Charlotte Cowles interviews Clay Cockrell, the therapist for the über-wealthy who is seeing a rise in anxiety among his clients.

• Watch: Oliver Widger quit his tire salesman job, liquidated his 401k, started vlogging his journey sailing across the Pacific Ocean by himself with his cat every single day.

• Listen: If you feel like every snack is being turned into a vessel for protein—hi, protein popcorn—you’re not alone. Heavies newsletter writer Chris Gayomali explains the “protein boom” on Vox’s Today, Explained.