Sublime

Donnelly, like many of the creators who make their living on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch, has long felt shunned by institutions that don’t understand that his lifestyle is also his business. That makes him the target market for Karat, a new startup offering financial services to the influencer set.

“We don't have enough examples of these messengers truly being embedded in the editorial strategies of the newsrooms,” Ragland said.

Across the country, Ragland sees signs of what might come next: contributor networks, ambassador programs, even “influencer labs” embedded in newsrooms.

Citarella noted that he’s been warning, for more than half a decade, that too many people remain under the mistaken impression that “what happens on the internet isn’t real.” He added that “the professional commentary class” has been particularly insulated from the power of digital discourse, because “they pay attention to the legacy sources of... See more

Everything stretched to the extremes; either extremely censored (i.e: Twitter) or non-censored (i.e: Parler). Extremely free (i.e. very obviously and unapologetically subsidized by ads, like FB) or extremely paid (i.e: OnlyFans). Extremely asynchronous or extremely synchronous. Extremely active or extremely passive. Extremely visual or extremely... See more

The thing I didn’t understand going into it was that Substack wasn’t just about an economic trend of power flowing to individual writers thanks to the leverage technology gives them—it was about creating a morally superior playing field that could help heal our minds from the damage done by social networks. The Substack model wasn’t just a business... See more