Do content creators need managers?
+ The Bop House implosion, Bryan Johnson pivots, the BAB craze, clankers, Gen Z etiquette coaches, State of Deepfakes, Spotify's AI problem, the bare minimum, big cup theory, and Karl Marx's Labubu
Zack Honarvar is one of the best managers in the content creator industry and for years, he has turned A list creators like Airrack into online behemoths. Now, he’s not so convinced YouTubers need managers.
Today he’s rebranding and repositioning his entire creator management company into an entertainment studio called Good Story Studios. “We want to be a creative partner with the creators that we work with,” Honarvar told me, “where, when they're coming up with ideas and we are packaging those ideas into materials and getting those into the hands of agencies and brands. [We also want to work more in] traditional entertainment mediums, like television, where we're pitching things as series.”
“I'm doing this because I don't believe creators should have managers and I'm trying to build the alternative solution,” he added. “I would always hear about creators having really bad experiences with management companies, and I started thinking through this problem of, what is the alternative, because I don't necessarily think every creator has the luxury of being able to hire their own internal teams. Many creators honestly don't want to hire and manage their own internal teams.”
Several popular creators have abandoned their managers in recent years. MrBeast parted ways with his management company last year, shortly becoming embroiled in scandal, in order to bring his business operations in house. Charli D’Amelio also took her business operations in house, hiring her agent Greg Goodfried away from UTA to become President of the D’Amelio media enterprise. Meanwhile, many management firms are taking a more active role in their clients businesses, acting more as creative partners than talent wranglers.
“We find that most creators have a media kit,” Honarvar said. “Then, their media kit gets sent out to a brand. Then, based on what their numbers are, a brand will say yes, read this 60 second integration in this video. What we're trying to do instead is think of a YouTube creator’s channel like a television network. What are the various series that they have within their channels where we can run a sales process as if it was a show?”
Good Story plans to be selective about who they partner with to start out. They want to work with large creators who can build long-term IP and series. Unlike conventional managers who represent creators as talent and support every aspect of their business, Good Story will focus exclusively on sales and brand partnerships. “We want to [help creators] package ideas, pitch concepts, and build their vision from the ground up,” Honarvar said.
“YouTube is the future of TV,” Honarvar said. “More people are watching YouTube on their TVs than on their phones, and the content they’re watching is some of the most emotionally resonant storytelling happening anywhere.”
Why we can’t stop doxxing people for fun
Last week, a couple featured on the Jumbotron during a Coldplay concert in Boston went viral for being caught cheating. Within minutes of the video spreading on TikTok and X, users rallied together to identify the couple in the video using AI and facial recognition tools.
Crowdsourced social media investigations are becoming more and more common, and the people conducting them are leveraging increasingly dystopian surveillance tech that police and the feds are using against undocumented immigrants and marginalized groups. Meanwhile, all of our privacy is being eroded.
Jason Koebler from 404 Media joined me to dig into the origins of the surveillance-entertainment economy, how and why it evolved, and what we can do to protect ourselves. Watch here.
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What I’m reading
How Much Do Podcasters Really Earn? One Star Pulls Back the Curtain.
Joe Budden, a former rapper who now oversees a robust podcast network, gave a rare look into the finances of the industry. His network is on pace to generate $20 million in 2025. - NY Times
The Website at the End of the Internet
Reddit is one of the last thriving islands of the old web. Can it survive AI? - NY Mag
The Desperation of Donald Trump’s Posts
Trump’s social-media habits are different when he can’t control the narrative. - The Atlantic
The AI Industry Is Radicalizing
There are now two parallel AI universes, and most of us are left to occupy the gap between them. There have been disagreements between boosters and skeptics for as long as AI has existed. But in recent months, the argument has intensified as the industry aggressively expands across digital space. - The Atlantic
Inside Silicon Valley’s strangest retreat, filled with taxidermy and smuggled treasures
Call it the anti-"Mountainhead": A 23-acre complex of hooks, bones, and antique rifles is an unlikely hideaway for Palantir execs and AI founders. - SF Standard
How a Video Studio Embraced A.I. and Stormed the Internet
The Dor Brothers are indie filmmakers whose viral videos are generated entirely by artificial intelligence. - NY Times
The intolerable memes of Alligator Alcatraz
The giddy, extremely online cruelty around the Florida detention facility reveals contempt for popular opinion. - The Verge