Link-o-rama: BlueSky rises, Substack resists Elon and the Project C Pitch Slam!
A cornucopia of Thanksgiving week links
🚨 Got an idea for a creator-model journalism project? Whether it’s a newsletter, YouTube channel, podcast, TikTok series, Twitch stream, or Insta idea, bring it to the table. We'll workshop together. Join me for this free session on Thursday, Dec. 12, at Noon ET. Sign up here!
the latest
A dark timeline exists in which Elon Musk would have bought Substack. Still, despite hosting newsletter heavyweights like Nate Silver, The Bulwark, Mehdi Hasan’s new thing and a raft of others, the newsletter platform has yet to reach profitability, report Jessica Testa and Ben Mullin in the Times.
“We know there’s a better way to work,” said Teresa Frontado, co-founder of DC news startup The 51st, the latest in a line of worker-owned collective newsrooms. After doing their due diligence talking to sites like Hellgate and support orgs like the always amazing Tiny News Collective, the former DCist staffers raised $276,000 from prospective readers. Even now, says Frontado in a new E&P interview, the staffers aren’t paid a salary. They’re working hourly rates in support of the mission.
A good analysis of the “traditional journalism” vs. influencer news from the Columbia Journalism Review points to some bright spots for traditional outlets as a reason for not writing any eulogies just yet. (But I wish we could stop concentrating on traditional vs. creator model and instead concentrate on building great examples of partnership between traditional outlets and indie creators.)
Journalism philanthropy may be placing too many bets on one path to the future, writes Dick Tofel in his latest thinker. Not gonna disagree, the Death Star-sized investment flowing into local news is commendable, but leaves little left to bolster new paths forward for everything from national cultural commentary to policy analysis to, ahem, independent creator journalism.
That said, kudos to the Knight Foundation for funding the ongoing Digital Content Creators and Journalists: How to be a Trusted Voice Online MOOC. The program kicked off last week, and word has it 8,000 global attendees logged in for the first installment.
tips & hacks
Matt Brown’s niche newsletter about the business side of college sports is 90% reader funded and his team is growing. This weekend he sponsored a college bowl game. Read more about how this former SB Nation scribe built his loyal audience over at Journalists Pay Themselves.
Have you migrated to Bluesky yet? The service hit 20M users last week as the exodus from X continued and it seems to have become the new de facto the home for journalists. I made the move (though I left X two years ago) and I am actually digging the lo-fi feel and congenial conversations. Here’s hoping they last. Follow me @lizkellynelson.bsky.social.
YouTube will now let followers buy jewels to support creators they follow. But it’s only on vertical live streams and the value of the jewels, which work like TikTok’s gifting feature, vary based on promotions, per The Verge.
things to do
Sign up for Lex Roman’s last free online meetups of the year: On Dec. 11, Lex leads the group through setting and reaching more ambitious goals and you’ll hear how other journalists are approaching their goal-setting.
And, again, the next day - Dec. 12 - join me for my first Project C Pitch Slam. We’ll mini-workshop your idea for going solo.
Bookmark this: ICYMI’s 2025 creator events database
Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. I’ll be back next week with more.