Why The Information is covering the creator economy

Simon Owens examines why The Information hired Kaya Yurieff to cover the creator economy and produce a newsletter about the topic.

Owens writes, “From the very beginning, Yurieff’s role was designed as newsletter-first, which meant she needed to deliver a product to subscribers’ inboxes every evening, Monday through Thursday. “I was really worried about having enough content to fill, and then I quickly realized there’s so much happening and there’s always something for me to write about.”

“Each day’s newsletter usually starts out with an anchor piece consisting of several hundred words. Usually, these anchor pieces summarize some kind of trend that Yurieff has noticed in her day-to-day reporting, and she’ll often include several quotes from sources. On February 7, for instance, she published a piece on ‘Why Static Video Memes Are All Over Instagram,’ and for it she interviewed the creators behind several meme accounts who discussed their strategy. On February 9, she wrote about employees who work for social media platforms while simultaneously creating content for those same platforms. The piece touched on the conflicts of interest that arise when a platform seems to favor content created by its own staff.

“At the bottom of the newsletter is a roundup of Creator Economy news, deals, and funding announcements. Within weeks of starting on the beat, Yurieff realized she was having a difficult time keeping track of the hundreds of platforms and startups that cater to the industry.”

Read more here.