{"id":189,"date":"2026-06-17T10:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T10:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2026-06-17T10:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T10:09:16","slug":"the-myth-of-the-independent-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=189","title":{"rendered":"The Myth of the \u201cIndependent Creator\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Online sensations like Mr. Beast\u2014the YouTuber with nearly 500 million subscribers\u2014have spurred countless imitators with dreams of online fame. More than 127 million people say they work as \u201ccreators,\u201d according to the influencer marketing firm NeoReach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=187\">The Exiles Who Sold Trump\u2019s Wars<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yet a vanishing few reach the stratospheric heights of Mr. Beast, who reportedly earns $700 million a year, or historian Heather Cox Richardson, whose Substack newsletter, \u201cLetters from an American,\u201d is estimated to bring in $5 million in annual revenues. According to a 2025 survey by NeoReach, 70 percent of creators report earning less than $49,000 a year, and more than half earn less than $15,000 annually. (YouTube, meanwhile, reported $60 billion in revenues in 2025.)<\/p>\n<p>As veteran podcaster Matt Robison argues, media has become a \u201c\u201d where a small number of players dominate the market. Their incumbency is secured by platforms like YouTube and Substack, which have every incentive to promote their superstars as a way to compete against each other. Algorithms that favor popularity make things worse for smaller creators trying to break in. The result is that no one who isn\u2019t already big can make it big because the big guys are insulated from competition.<\/p>\n<p>Robison, who worked for years as a senior staffer on Capitol Hill, is the author of the Substack, <em>Worth Knowing<\/em>, and the host of the podcast, <em>Beyond Politics<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"720\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NFSNEo2UafY\" width=\"1280\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. The full interview is available at Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>***<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Kim:\u00a0Social media platforms and platforms like Substack have really created this mythology around the unknown creator who hits it big. And you do have successes like Mr. Beast, Heather Cox Richardson, and Barry Weiss\u2019s \u201cFree Press,\u201d which sold to Paramount for <\/strong><strong>$150 million<\/strong><strong>. Success stories like these create the perception that anyone can become a publisher, and it\u2019s true that back in the day, not everyone could put out their own newspaper. At the same time, I think there\u2019s a pretty strong argument that these platforms that are allegedly intended to democratize influence aren\u2019t really fulfilling their promise. You\u2019ve done this for years now and have quite a bit of experience on the economics of how all these platforms work. Who\u2019s really benefiting? Is it the platforms or are they being fair to the creators?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Robison: <\/strong>I\u2019d say that they\u2019re being fair within the limited economics that these platforms offer. It\u2019s not that the promise of these platforms is hollow. It\u2019s just highly curated. They\u2019re businesses, and like every business, they\u2019re selling something.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So in the 1980s, you may remember that the slogan for the NBA was, \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic!\u201d You wouldn\u2019t have said, \u201cIt\u2019s pretty good!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of creators are going to end up in that middle class or lower middle class or working class of creators. That\u2019s just the nature of the platform economics. But of course, they\u2019re not going to sell it that way. If you\u2019re YouTube, with Google behind it, if you\u2019re Substack, if you\u2019re Spotify, you\u2019re going to have a vested interest in selling your superstars and the promise that you too could be like them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The reality is that it\u2019s just very, very stacked against you. It\u2019s very hard to make it. I\u2019m not entirely sure that it\u2019s the companies\u2019 and the platforms\u2019 fault. I think it\u2019s the overall dynamics of how these platforms work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Kim:\u00a0It seems like what\u2019s happening with media generally and these platforms is a microcosm of the economy at large that is very much \u201cwinner takes all.\u201d You have the Mr. Beasts and Heather Cox Richardson together at the very top, and then <em>Washington Monthly<\/em> would be very much in the middle class, right? We\u2019ve been at this fairly modest level for quite some time. It\u2019s very difficult to compete with the larger platforms, and I think there are a lot of structural forces that rig the house against independent creators. What would you say are some of the challenges that independent creators have to battle when they\u2019re up against the big guys, meaning the big creators, but also the big platforms?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Robison: <\/strong>You could choose any niche here, writing in Substack, or video and YouTube, or audio podcasts, which are quickly becoming video podcasts, which are quickly just becoming YouTube. It\u2019s like Derek Thompson\u2019s thing, \u201cEverything wants to become TV eventually.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s go with traditional podcasts since it\u2019s something everyone\u2019s pretty familiar with at this point. Well, one issue with the podcast market is something that goes back to an idea from 1981, by this economist Sherwin Rosen, who wrote \u201cEconomics of Superstars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The podcast market is a superstar market. That\u2019s a phenomenon where a very small number of top performers are able to capture a wildly disproportionate share of market revenue. Usually you see this in markets where there\u2019s a mechanism called \u201c.\u201d That\u2019s where a creator can serve an unlimited audience at a near zero marginal cost. So from the standpoint of the audience, there\u2019s no reason to settle for a knockoff. There\u2019s no limitation on your access to that premium good. You might as well just go for the premium good, and that means that those top superstars can basically reach everyone. They compete against everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And if you are a new entrant, this gets into another concept called \u201ccontestable markets,\u201d where there are very low barriers to entry. That\u2019s definitely the situation with podcasts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Everyone has an opinion, and everyone has a podcast these days. It\u2019s very, very easy to get into it. What ends up happening is this very stratified market where you have some top superstars who through various advantages emerge and then have this phenomenon that builds on itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s an aspect of this that I don\u2019t have an economic name for, although I\u2019m sure it exists if I really searched on JSTOR long enough. But just think about your own experience: How many podcasts are you subscribed to?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Kim:\u00a0Subscribe to? I mean quite a few. How many I actually have time to listen to? Besides yours, of course, right? That\u2019s what you\u2019re getting at, right?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Robison: <\/strong>That\u2019s the rub. So let me guess. You\u2019re like me. You\u2019re probably subscribed to 15 to 20 podcasts. Might be more. But in a given week, you probably listen to maybe three, maybe four episodes. For me, it varies a great deal. For example, for a while my favorite NBA podcaster, Zach Lowe, was off the air. He got fired by ESPN.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And so I replaced that show in my regular listening rotation with a different show from some other ESPN NBA guys. Then Zach got hired by a new company. Now he\u2019s back. And I\u2019m not listening to that other show anymore. I\u2019m listening to Zach Lowe. That\u2019s the way most people experience most of these products on these platforms. They\u2019ve only got so many slots available to them. You lead a busy life.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You probably only have time for three or four podcasts a week. I only have space in my email inbox for maybe five Substacks. That\u2019s the way most people experience it. So for most of us, as entrants into these contestable markets where there are low barriers to entry, and where there are incumbent superstars, what we find is we\u2019re not competing against that very top tier. We\u2019re competing against that big middle class. That\u2019s where all the churn is. And that\u2019s essentially the problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0There\u2019s no way to break into those limited number of slots. If I wanted to get to the very top of someone\u2019s listening rotation, first I have to compete against all of that churn in the middle. And then I\u2019ve got to convince someone to take their version of Zach Lowe out of one of their premium slots and replace it with me. That is ultra hard.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Kim:\u00a0I think that there are definitely ways in which the companies are also stacking the deck against the middle class of content creators and preserving the incumbency of the people at the top. One of the ways is utter lack of transparency. They want to create this illusion that anybody can do it. And anybody <em>can<\/em> do it, but they also don\u2019t tell you how hard it is. Substack has no information whatsoever on how many people are on their platform, what their revenues are, and what\u2019s the expected revenue for your typical Substacker. They don\u2019t disclose any of that information. None of the big platforms do. I think it kind of lures people in and creates a hypercompetitive market just because people don\u2019t know what they\u2019re up against.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Robison: <\/strong>To me, the biggest myth that the platforms sell is that there are hacks and tricks and optimizations and best practices that get you there. If you only follow this one pathway, and there\u2019s a million people who are kind of like derivative hangers on to these marketplaces, who are gurus that will sell you: \u201cHere\u2019s how you get there.\u201d \u201cHere are the top 10 hacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you want to pause this podcast right now\u2014but please don\u2019t\u2014you can go on YouTube, search for \u201ctop creator hacks,\u201d and you will find them. The reality is this, and I\u2019ve been at this on YouTube, on Substack, and on Podcast for six years now. There is no way to market, promote, or hack your way to growth if you are an independent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Let me say this again. It is the number one myth that the platforms promote. You can\u2019t get from here to there just because you market more, you promote on other platforms more, you go on social media. For one thing, you get very little cross-platform value. If you promote on Twitter a podcast that\u2019s on YouTube, you get almost nothing. Now, some of that is algorithmic throttling, where Elon Musk literally will limit the reach of any tweet that has a YouTube link in it. That\u2019s part of the problem. But part of it is people are on Twitter to do one kind of thing. They\u2019re not necessarily there to listen to podcasts that are on another platform. And so you just get very limited value.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=185\">The Power of Vote at Home<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can do paid marketing. It can work a little. There\u2019s a whole ad industry that\u2019s built on the idea that you can persuade people to buy things by putting some money behind advertising. So I\u2019m not saying it works zero, but it doesn\u2019t work nearly as well as people would like to make it seem.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There are three guaranteed ways to have a hit podcast that I\u2019ve found, and these are stone cold locks that can definitely get you to be at least a moderately successful podcast. Number one, you can be a current celebrity. So if you\u2019re Amy Poehler, whom I adore, you can start a podcast, <em>Good Hang with Amy Poehler<\/em>, and become a top podcast in a week. Number two, you can have a giant company behind you that will put a lot of dollars behind it. So if you work for <em>The<\/em> <em>New York Times,<\/em> you can have a successful podcast. It\u2019s not a guarantee, but it\u2019s a lot more likely. The third thing you can do is to invent a time machine and go back 10 years and get in on the ground floor of any of these platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That first mover advantage has launched a number of successful creators to upper middle-class status. Good on them. It\u2019s just not accessible to the rest of us who are trying to get in on Substack now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Kim:\u00a0 And I would add one more way in which you can get to the top. And that is to be in that inner circle because the platforms are choosing winners and losers. Back in 2021, TechCrunch reported that Substack was getting a lot of backlash over its \u201c<\/strong><strong>Substack Pro<\/strong><strong>,\u201d program, where they recruited these writers and gave them like advances, like a quarter of a million dollars, and then spent a huge amount of resources to elevate their platform publications on that platform to give Substack a start.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>But it created an incumbent advantage that<strong>\u2019<\/strong>s really, really difficult for other independent creators to overcome. Meta is doing the same thing. Meta <\/strong><strong>is paying<\/strong><strong> top creators paying top creators on TikTok and YouTube to come onto Facebook, you know? So the house always wins, meaning the platforms.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>And of course, there are the algorithms too, right? Algorithms are <\/strong><strong>self-reinforcing<\/strong><strong> feedback loops that favors the big players again. They can also be gamed in lots of ways. Fake accounts, bots, ads. Again, those big companies you talked about are the ones that win. It also favors bad content. As you and I know, we have tried so hard to put quality content out there, but it<strong>\u2019<\/strong>s really hard to beat the algorithms when you have substantive, serious, factual content.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Robison: <\/strong>Yeah, it\u2019s very hard. I\u2019ve likened it to trying to operate a Michelin one-star restaurant next to a McDonald\u2019s. You clearly are winning on quality. The problem is people really like fries. They really like McNuggets. And again, I\u2019m not here to fault anyone\u2019s taste. People\u2019s taste is people\u2019s taste. But it\u2019s very, very hard to compete on quality, and trying to differentiate on quality is not a winning strategy. I\u2019ve employed it for years now. It doesn\u2019t it doesn\u2019t get you very far.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But that is again where the combination of superstar economics and contestable markets and limited audience slots really come to play because you do have a sea of competitors out there and new entrants all the time. And you are dealing with that churn.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So if you\u2019re in the middle as an independent, you\u2019re a little bit like Han Solo and Princess Leia in the trash compactor. You\u2019ve got this compression happening all around you, and you\u2019re trying to keep your head above it. You\u2019re not only competing against existing market players, substitutes that are doing the same thing you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re also dealing with new people showing up. It<strong>\u2019<\/strong>s like you<strong>\u2019<\/strong>re on the Roman frontier and here come the Visigoths, and you<strong>\u2019<\/strong>re constantly dealing with that. So it<strong>\u2019<\/strong>s an unenviable position. You<strong>\u2019<\/strong>re getting compacted the entire tim<strong>e.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[You can think,] \u201cI don\u2019t want to compete against all these guys in the middle. I want to compete against the upper tier.\u201d\u00a0But they\u2019re insulated. They\u2019re floating like the cream above all this churn below them because of superstar economics. They\u2019re insulated by two tiers of competition and a limited number of slots. For someone to take <em>The New York Times<\/em> out of their rotation and say, \u201cInstead of that, I\u2019m going to the <em>Washington Monthly<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s a much bigger leap, and that\u2019s awfully hard.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Kim:\u00a0I want to switch gears and talk a little bit about the importance of having quality independent creators, especially when we\u2019re looking at what\u2019s happening on a larger scale inside media. The Roosevelt Institute <\/strong><strong> that just six major companies control the vast majority of American media, and that is down from 50 companies in 1983.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>And this kind of consolidation reinforces the superstar economics you\u2019re talking about, but it\u2019s actually really bad for democracy because you have fewer voices that are monopolizing the airwaves, and there\u2019s a lot of news that\u2019s just not getting covered. I want to ask you to make the case for independent creators. What are the big outlets failing to cover that you try to cover in your work? Why is it so important for people like you to be doing what you\u2019re doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Robison: <\/strong>You can read about what just happened in a key Senate race last week in <em>The New York Times<\/em>, or you can read it on <em>Worth Knowing with Matt Robison<\/em>. I\u2019m not going to pretend to do the exact same thing that <em>The New York Times<\/em> is doing. And in fact, that would be a horrible strategy. That would be a Goliath strategy, not a David strategy. And I\u2019m not going to pretend that I do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019m able to say things that they won\u2019t say. I try to maintain the same level of scrupulous sourcing, being fact-based and not just offering hopium to readers, but that kind of voice where you\u2019re not subject to the editorial room distortion that comes up. This isn\u2019t a criticism of <em>The New York Times<\/em>. I could choose any outlet. You\u2019ve got the whole <em>Washington Post<\/em> \u201cDemocracy dies in darkness\u201d fiasco. There are all kinds of things that they no longer say on the opinion page that they used to be able to say. I can bring a certain amount of honesty that you really don\u2019t get anywhere else. That\u2019s the value of independent media.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Kim:\u00a0The large media companies that are now controlling more and more of the media ecosystem are also decidedly conservative. We saw an example of that with the firing of Scott Pelley at <em>60 Minutes<\/em> at CBS News after the Bari Weiss takeover. But when you look at Paramount, Sinclair Broadcasting, News Corp, you know, those are three of the big six. And they\u2019re not exactly centrist at this point. So that I think is another argument for contrary voices to be out there.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>So what ideas do you have for empowering more independent creators?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Robison: <\/strong>We now have really strong evidence that it\u2019s the basic dynamics of the way these markets and platforms operate that are accounting for most of the effects we\u2019re seeing. Not all. As you laid out, I think you make a very compelling case that the platforms are incentivized to elevate superstars. Of course they are. I\u2019ve been talking about the NBA. How did the NBA sell itself? Well, it wasn\u2019t the guy on the end of the bench. They sold Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Every business sells its stars, and I don\u2019t fault Substack or YouTube for doing the same thing. And the fact that we\u2019ve seen the same effect happen with podcasts, with YouTube, with Substack\u2014the same stratification, the same superstar economics\u2014suggests strongly to me that this is as inherent in the basic economics of the platforms as a natural monopoly would be in the utility space.<\/p>\n<p>I do think, though, that there\u2019s an opening for innovation. There is a ton of change going on all the time. The way to make it on YouTube is not the same in 2026 as it was in 2023 when I was breaking on there with my YouTube. The way to make it on Substack is not the same as it was even two years ago. Now, I\u2019m not suggesting that there\u2019s a secret way to make it, like on Substack, that would vault someone from the middle class to the upper tier. I\u2019m not saying that. I\u2019m just saying that there is change going on and there\u2019s an opportunity. I think there\u2019s a potential for innovation. I don\u2019t know what form it\u2019s going to take.<\/p>\n<p>I would just urge people to experiment wildly because something is going to catch on. You can\u2019t go back to 2016 and start a podcast. But what you can do is think very hard about what you can do that\u2019s radically different on Substack in podcasting and maybe fail at it. That\u2019s something I\u2019m thinking a lot about. How do you do something innovative and different that might give you the same opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new model.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Anne Kim:\u00a0Well one idea that I have, which I think applies to the economy at large and in politics too, for that matter, is an old idea. And that\u2019s collective action. Any one of us as individuals or as smaller entities can\u2019t go up against either the big platforms or the big players, but together, there\u2019s a possibility. I would like to see more co-ops between independent creators banding together in some way to aggregate audience, aggregate influence, the same way that, you know, one voter can\u2019t change the law, but you know, 80 million voters can change a president or change control of the House, or a hundred million shoppers can decide whether to boycott a business or not.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Maybe there\u2019s a collective action piece where creators can figure out how to take more control and elevate those of us who are not Zach Lowe or Ezra Klein or name your favorite superstar influencer. But there has to be room for more voices.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Robison: <\/strong>I\u2019ll build on your idea with two of what we used to call on Capitol Hill \u201cfriendly amendments.\u201d\u00a0One thing that I think independents can demand of their platforms collectively is AI labeling. This is something I\u2019m writing up for Substack right now. This exists. It\u2019s a requirement. If you\u2019re going to put up billboard in an EU country, you have to label any AI content. If you\u2019re putting up a YouTube video, you have to label AI content, and it\u2019s not eligible for monetization. No such requirement exists on Substack. This is something that Substack writers should demand\u2014that there should be AI labeling. It\u2019s bad enough that you\u2019re in the middle of the trash compactor and you\u2019re trying to deal with the thousands of other people and potential entrants in your space. You don\u2019t have to also compete against the robots.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Number two, I think independent writers can do what you\u2019re suggesting and demand of their platform that it create tools to make it easier for us to innovate, for us to aggregate, for us to try to pool our resources. It should be easier for you and me.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re already attached to a magazine, but independents should be able to try and experiment creating a Substack magazine. Some people are doing this, essentially. They\u2019re trying, but the platform\u2019s not making it super easy. I\u2019m speaking specifically of Substack here, but the same thing could apply to other platforms. They should be making it really technologically easy to encourage innovation and to let other models try themselves out and potentially thrive. It\u2019s good for them, and it\u2019s good for the smaller independents.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=183\">How Local News Reduces Loneliness<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much like the economy at large, the platforms like Substack operate on superstar economics, favoring big players over independent creators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,17,5,2],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-foreign-policy","category-government","category-podcast","category-politics","tag-tagged-algorithms-creators-elon-musk-independent-media-media-and-democracy-new-york-times-substack-washington-post-youtube"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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