Hollywood and Journalists are going Indie

If 2024 is the year YouTube went Hollywood, is 2025 the Year Hollywood goes indie? Cristiano Ronaldo and Tom Brady have joined YouTube. Matt McConaughey has been on YouTube but is now starting a newsletter on Kit. Arnold Schwarzenegger hosts his newsletter on beehiiv. Many journalists, both independent and complete newsrooms, are pivoting to Substack and beehiiv. The migration of established celebrities and journalists to independent platforms signals a significant shift in the creator economy landscape.

When Hollywood stars and mainstream journalists move to independent platforms, it legitimizes these spaces for all creators. Yes, they were already legit for us, but to see athletes and actors who have already amassed wealth and fame put in consistent effort to own their platforms says something about the changing tide and perception of traditional media. Celebrities choosing independent platforms over traditional media highlights the growing importance of direct creator-audience relationships. Maybe all the online creators chirping about the value of building and owning your audience connections are onto something.

As Hollywood talent embraces more authentic/less scripted content formats, it suggests that audience engagement matters more than high production values. If you’re working with limited resources, you now have no excuses. If you’re thinking, “They can get away with that because they can always pay for talent to help them execute and they already have name recognition,” let’s talk monetization and a few pro tips we can learn from celebrities and journalists entering the indie creator space.

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