The Vanishing Clicks

💡 TOP STORIES

SEARCH TRAFFIC CRATERS

AI advancements may be slowing, but they’re still wreaking havoc on media.  A new study finds top publishers lost 10% of Google search referrals YOY. The Digital Content Next report disputes Google’s “everything’s fine” spin… and it’s even worse for non-news brands. The study concludes that via AI, Google has transformed itself from search partner to search competitor.  Creators relying on SEO need to lean into AI-generated SEO techniques now.  (DCN)

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TUBI TAPS TOP TIKTOK EXEC

Another of my predictions, that traditional media execs would decamp to creator businesses, has been turned on its head.  Now it goes both ways.  TikTok’s former global creator marketing chief @Kudzi Chikumbu just joined Tubi as VP of Creator Partnerships. Led by @Rich Bloom, the AVOD platform is quickly becoming a  creator content hub, and Kudzi will only accelerate that shift. While you’re at it, give Kudzi an attaboy for getting his first bylined article in Fast Company too!   (TheWrap, LinkedIn)

MAYFLY OR METHUSELAH

What’s the lifecycle of a short video?  A new study from Measure Studio finds that most short form video views happen within the first month or two, but it varies considerably across platform.  Shorts and TikToks last only a month, while Instagram and Facebook stretch out to two.  By month 3?  Crickets all around.  The study recommends recycling your content and juicing underperforming videos early on. That’s especially important on TikTok, where 72% of views happen on day on.  (Measure Studio)

AI HITS A WALL

Welcome to AI’s trough of despair. GPT5’s underwhelming release shows that the “bigger is better race has stalled. We’ve moved to the middleware optimization era, where smart routing layers move queries to the model with the best price/performance.  @Dave Karpf calls it the end of “Naïve AI Futurism”.  That doesn’t mean creators can safely ignore AI. The productivity and creative benefits can drive outsized results.  But don’t expect flying cars (or pigs) anytime soon.  (The Future Then and Now)

• Related: Now begins the real work of figuring out what to do with the models we already have. (Kenneth Wolters)

QUIBI 2.0?

’ve been exhorting YouTube and US creators to look beyond long-form TV content and embrace the micro-series trend.  Back in the spring I called it “YouTube’s blind spot”, suggesting that the flywheel would work for more than just dramas.  I reiterated the bingeable power of the format in last month’s trend forecast, predicting it would soon find success in the US as well as globally.  

Someone was listening.  

Last week, long-time media exec Lloyd Braun (yes the guy who once hurled a balky computer out the of his Yahoo office window) and a team from Cineverse. Disco and Disney, announced “MicroCo”, claiming the market would be $10B in two years.  The team is thin on creator economy execs, but I don’t see another Quibi-like quagmire developing.  I’m especially intrigued by their focus on expanding the addiction flywheel beyond just dramas too.  Now it’s all about execution and building the dopamine-infused tech flywheel.  My unasked for advice?  Hire top creator exec, offer equity to smart creators, and launch before the end of the year. (Cineverse, NYT, Deadline)

• Related: The Soul Publishing just launched its own micro-drama platform SHRT. My Wordle-obsessed brain couldn’t resist cycling through different vowels… with at least one unfortunate result.  (Net Influencer)

• Related: Unionization could be coming for new creator-led studios, the YouTube economy, and micro-drama startups like “NewCo”.  (THR)

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💡 PLATFORMS

YOUTUBE

• Incremental Changes: Bigger post images, editing multi-audio videos and improvements to YouTube Promote. (Creator Insider)

• Got $7,500?  See Neal Mohan speak at The All-In Summit in September. A very high-T group of speakers. (Threads)

META

• Can We Trust Meta? Reuters uncovers internal AI guidelines allowing chatbots to engage in inappropriate romantic or sensual dialogue with kids. (Reuters)

• Related: Musician Neil Young leaves Facebook over chatbot concerns.  That’s OK, though, says Stratechery, as “Facebook is dead” (THR, Stratechery)

• Shake Up: Meta’s AI group gets its fourth reorg in six months. (Indian Express)

TIKTOK

• Rules Change:  Content will be downranked if it pushes off-platform sales in Shop markets, along with tighter disclosure requirements, AI softening, and more Live restrictions. (TechCrunch)

• Time’s Running Out:  29 days until the presumed “last chance” for TikTok in the US expires. (TikTok Countdown Clock)

💡 QUIBIS

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

• Riches in Niches:  Congrats to both @Megan Lightcap and @jonathan Katz-Moses for collaborating on Slow Ventures’ first creator investment.  My dad would have loved this channel/business.  (Slow Upload)

• Turnaround’s Fair Play:  t’s not just about starting things.  @jon Youshaei explores how creators are turning around existing businesses as well.  (Created)

• SuperFans Get a Glowup:  Ex Spotify senior exec @Nick Holmsten launches platform to connect and change the relationship between musicians and their top fans.  There’s a lot of these platforms going around. (LinkedIn)

• From Entrepreneur to Media Mogul:  Whalar Group Co-CEO @Neil Waller writes about the shift from creators building businesses to creators building studios – and highlights a potential return to the MCNs of the last decade.  (Fast Company)

• Unionization Coming?  The Writers guild has cast its eyes on these new studios – and the broader , Aleyda Solís, Mike King, YouTube economy, hoping to unionize their employees.

• Shopper Social: More on why LTK and ShopMy want to become the next Facebook. (AdWeek)

• TikTok for Mini-Games:  Merging the feed with vibecoding and gaming, new creator-first platform Spielwork leans into the AI-fueled disruption of gaming. (Dexerto)

• What Replaces the Attention Economy?  Trust, Outcomes and Agents, according to @Doug Shapiro.  @Evan Shapiro says it’s affinity. (The Mediator – $$$, ESHAP)

• Going Global: Gushcloud announces new MENA hub in Abu Dhabi in partnership with the local investment office. (Marketing-Interactive)

• WaPo Builds Creator Newsroom: In the wake of Dave Jorgensen’s departure, the Washington Post launches a third newsroom focused on creators and AI.  (Washington Post)

• LinkedIn Helps Events: New “Thought Leadership Event Ads” should really help events gain visibility.  (LinkedIn)

CREATOR TECH – AI, AR, VR, MORE

• Copyright Class Action: Uh-oh.  “Move fast and break things” just might doom the AI industry.  (Ars Technica)

• Roblox Under Fire: Louisiana sues Roblox for failing to protect kids. Roblox responds.  (Shreveport Times, Roblox)

• Time-Waster:  Check out Midjourney.TV.  It’s addictive!  (Recomendo)

📊 RESEARCH

Building AI Search Authority:  An SEO expert releases results of 18-months of testing AI search strategies with home-services clients.  Best practices include BBB ratings, leaning in to Yelp and Reddit, local link authority and a press-release strategy specifically targeted at LLMs. (Blair Witkowski)

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!) and AI was very lightly used for editing.

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Let me know what you think – email me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.