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Inside the Creator Economy

News, strategy and analysis on the creator economy, media, generative AI and more from the former GM of VidCon

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Inside the Creator Economy

Featured Posts

Jan 5, 2026

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13 min read

10 Trends to Rule 2026!

How The Beast joins Baby Shark, Disappointing Microdramas and the opportunities in AI Slop. SUBHEAD

Jim Louderback

Jan 26, 2026

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15 min read

DECODING YOUTUBE 2026

What Neal Mohan was really saying in his blog post about 2026 priorities

Jim Louderback

Latest Issues

Jul 20, 2026

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9 min read

OPEN SAUCE CONFIDENTIAL

What I learned at Open Sauce from LinkedIn, Twitch, Patreon, Anthropic, Mark Rober, Colin Furze and Michael Stevens

Jim Louderback

Jul 14, 2026

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7 min read

THE SLOP PURGE HAS ARRIVED

Somewhere at Google, a machine is deleting entire media companies before lunch. Google just revealed how it works.

Jim Louderback

Jul 13, 2026

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2 min read

AN OPEN LETTER TO META

On stolen likeness, buried settings, dastardly deepfakes and why creators need a seat at your table

Jim Louderback

Jul 8, 2026

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7 min read

McKinsey Just Erased Creators from the Future

What McKinsey's AI-infused future of marketing looks like. Hint, creators don't even show up.

Jim Louderback

Jun 29, 2026

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8 min read

Now Your Audience Can Control You

Your audience doesn't want to watch you anymore. They want to buy you.

Jim Louderback

Jun 22, 2026

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8 min read

To Clone or Not to Clone

Jay Shetty cloned himself. Tim Ferriss goes deep and narrow.

Jim Louderback

Whalar Sold. Whalar Lives. What It Means.

Jun 15, 2026

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7 min read

Whalar Sold. Whalar Lives. What It Means.

Does the world need two Whalars?

Jim Louderback

Jun 8, 2026

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8 min read

First Reddit, Then YouTube

Reddit has increasingly become an AI search optimization battleground. YouTube is next.

Jim Louderback

Jun 1, 2026

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7 min read

YouTube’s Scarlet Letter

YouTube begins auto-labelling AI-generated content. What could possibly go wrong?

Jim Louderback

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