What do we need to know about the creator economy right now? A live convo with tech journalist Taylor Lorenz
Netflix just unveiled a TikTok style feed for their mobile app. More people watch YouTube on their TVs than their phones. The lines are blurring between social media, film, streaming, tv...
NOTE: Here is a link to the recorded video.
On May 12th I hosted a live chat with tech and culture journalist Taylor Lorenz. She writes User Mag, a Substack that covers the online world. So as Hollywood looks to YouTube to save itself, I wanted to bring her on to talk to us about how this online media stuff all started and where it’s going…. and what it means for independent filmmakers, documentary lovers, and those of us who aren’t already getting our paychecks and all of our media from online creators.
Taylor and I met when we were both at the New York Times, and we instantly became friends. We both love to discuss media from analyzing the latest documentary films, to the role of legacy news organizations to the power of online influencers and the stratospheric rise and impact of social media platforms. More often than not she is schooling me on all of this! She wrote the book, Extremely Online, which tells the story of the people who made the stuff that made social media a business from Mommy bloggers to Vine superstars to TikTok influencers.
Because you do know the creator economy is taking over all media, right?
MrBreast’s Amazon show probably just got renewed for a second season, per Deadline.
YouTubers aren’t just being courted by Amazon but also by Netflix, Peacock and Disney according to the Wall Street Journal.
And my guess is that video podcasters might be more likely to get a Netflix deal now than the winners of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival!
It’s increasingly evident that creators who already have massive online followings and are adept at making content for online consumption are best suited to survive in 2025 and beyond. Sadly, that is not most filmmakers. Although it could be!
Will the formats of movies and televisions shows still exist in a few years?
I think audiences will still want to watch great shows and films in the future, even if audience viewing habits are evolving.
And nothing is stopping filmmakers from building big online followings and figuring out how to monetize their work like creators do everyday on YouTube, Instagram, Patreon, Substack, etc.
So today I will talk to Taylor about the stories of the people who invented the creator economy in order to understand how it can offer a path for the the survival of all forms of stories and for independent filmmakers too!
Of course, we will also cover the downsides of this world, from the shifting winds of social platforms to the punishing publication schedule needed to grow and keep an audience, not to mention the long and twisty road towards monetization.
So let’s pull out your notebooks, send me your questions now or live, and I promise there is a glimmer of hope in this convo!
P.S.
My ALL-TIME favorite story of Taylor’s is about Peter McIndoe, who started the Birds Aren’t Real movement. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t immediately stop everything and make a documentary about him. Alas…
So is Netflix finally taking Scott Galloway’s advice and getting into social video with their new feed? Galloway wrote about how Netflix should make all their content into snippets for a TikTok like video product powered by AI. “NFLX should partner with a deep-pocketed AI firm (e.g., Anthropic), horny to demonstrate differentiation in an increasingly crowded field, and launch a TikTok competitor.”