The limits of a creator’s personal brand
The limits of a creator’s personal brand
Can you build a scalable media business around a solo creator?
Welcome! I'm Simon Owens and this is my media newsletter. If you've received it, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. If you fit into the latter camp and want to subscribe, then you can click on this handy little button:
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The limits of a creator’s personal brand
Last week I published a 3,000-word deep dive into the King of Random, a super popular YouTube channel that transitioned from a one-man show to a multi-platform media company with over a dozen staffers.
As I mentioned in the piece, this mirrors a trend that I’ve seen in the larger creator economy: more and more social media stars are trying to extricate themselves from the day-to-day operations of creating content. This has to do somewhat with the desire to reduce burnout, but it’s also about building a self-sustaining media company that doesn’t live or die based on the involvement of a single person.
I interview a lot of media entrepreneurs for my newsletter and podcast, and some have expressed wonder at the fact that I’m building my entire business on the back of my personal brand. After all, the URL for my newsletter is simonowens.substack.com, and I’ve never done anything to hide the fact that it’s just me behind the curtain creating all of the content.
What can I say? I consider myself a content creator first and a business person second. When I think about the people I admire most in media, it’s not the moguls who built huge empires, but rather the writers, podcasters, and video creators who achieved a small level of stardom.
From the ages of 12 to 21, I wanted to be the next Stephen King, and after graduating college I wanted to be the next Malcolm Gladwell or Michael Lewis. Perhaps it’s because I have an oversized ego, but I like being front and center. One of the things I hated about working in PR and marketing was that I was doing so much to elevate other people’s brands at the expense of my own.
I also don’t think moguldom and stardom are mutually exclusive. Take Malcolm Gladwell as an example. He spent the better part of 30 years working his way up through the ranks of journalism until he reached the top of his field; not only did he become a staff writer for the world’s most prestigious magazine, but he also published New York Times bestsellers and commanded huge speaking fees.
And then in 2018 he co-founded Pushkin Industries, a podcast company that started simply with Gladwell’s own show, Revisionist History, but has since brought on other A-List talent like Michael Lewis and Jill Lepore. It’s also expanded into audiobooks. Gladwell basically took his brand and personal connections and used them as a springboard to generate investment and buzz. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Pushkin acquired for a sizable sum within the next decade.
And not to get too far ahead of myself, but if I ever wanted to build something bigger than my own personal brand, it wouldn’t be too difficult to simply change the URL for my Substack and then erect infrastructure around it. Because I own my email list, such a migration would be relatively painless, and I could even move my content to a completely new platform if I wanted to.
I don’t think I ever want to stop creating content, but maybe one day I’d like to move on to a new niche or medium. Hell, I might even return to my dream of becoming the next Stephen King.
Quick hits
A good profile of the woman who helped build Peloton's cult following. [Digiday]
A comprehensive overview of the current state of Axios's local newsletters. [Digiday]
Whatever your view of Barstool's politics, you have to admit that it's seen some impressive growth these last few years. [Front Office Sports]
TikTok just entered the billion user club, which is especially amazing when you consider that Twitter and Snapchat have been around much longer and neither are anywhere close to that number. [TikTok]
The NYT exposes some potentially fraudulent behavior committed by OZY. [NYT] This story is bonkers. Ozy is an enigma, in that I only hear about it when it announces a new massive wave of investment. The fact that they kept the executive on after he impersonated a YouTube employee seems like a huge red flag.
I was recently invited onto the Media Voices podcast to chat about this week's media news. Check it out! [Media Voices] (BTW, I love going on other people's podcasts, so don't hesitate to invite me on)
This crime writer sold 7 million copies of her books, and because she self published them, she gets to keep most of the revenue AND the IP rights. [BBC]
Coming up this week
I interviewed Snigdha Sur, founder of The Juggernaut, a subscription-funded publisher that has a dedicated and growing fan base. I asked Snigdha about how she convinced YCombinator to let in a media startup, why she launched a hard paywall, and whether she’ll ever introduce advertising into her revenue mix. Look for it to hit your inboxes on Wednesday.