“I hope this will convince Democrats that we need to invest more in this. They need to work with creators, not just young creators but creators of all types, to try to bring up our numbers on some of these platforms,” Ryan Davis, co-founder and chief operating officer, People. says First, a political influencer and relationship marketing firm that partnered with the Biden and Harris campaigns.
Amelia Montooth, a progressive creative who supported the Harris campaign, believes Democrats need to work on building their own progressive media ecosystem. She's not just thinking about liberal Joe Rogan or individual progressive influencers, but about entire outlets. She's actually already trying to do that: Montooth is also the co-founder and CEO of Mutual Media, a new digital-first media company that's trying to dethrone right-wing culture brands like Barstool and Old Row. Is.
“What Right does really well is create a funnel that I believe starts with Barstool Sports to reach a mass audience,” says Montooth. “The left is missing the top and middle of those funnels… Instead of working with individual influencers, they should be focusing on building that part of the ecosystem, that funnel.”
One of the more surprising findings in the Pew report was that the majority of news influencers included in the study had X accounts (85 percent). YouTube was in second place with 50 percent of creators using the platform. The report does not reveal how active they are on Was.
Even with new alternatives like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, X still has a monopoly on text-based social platforms. However, the report does not give a reason for moving away from X after the election. However, in the coming weeks and months, I'm curious how 85 percent might fare in the face of new competition from alternatives like Bluesky, which grew to over 20 million users following the election. Musk wanted X to be a digital town square, but the billionaire's support of Trump may make that dream less feasible.
chat rooms
Are you one of the 50 million people who get at least some of their news from news influencers? Who do you follow? Why do you trust them? Can traditional media learn any lessons from them? I want to hear what you think!
Send your thoughts here mail@wired.com,
Wired reads
want more? Subscribe now For unlimited access to WIRED.
What else are we reading
The strangest domain Alex Jones had to give to The Onion, The Onion purchased Info Wars last week, and the infamous conspiracy site comes with some silly domain names, like goblinlove.com and cuckdorsey.com. (Gizmodo)
Truth Social investors expected to be 'very rich' after Trump victory. not enough, Some of Trump's most ardent supporters geared up to buy Truth Social stock. The re-election of the former President was supposed to boost the company's value, but this has not happened yet. (Washington Post)
Maxwell Frost is in the running to become the first Generation Z congressman, Democrats are still reeling from their election loss, but they will soon select DNC leaders who can lead them in a new direction. Maxwell Frost, a Florida congressman who has led digital-savvy campaigns, announced this week that he is jumping into the race to co-chair the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. (Axios)
download
But wired politics laboratory podcast This week, Leah talks to Vittoria Elliott and David Gilbert about Bluesky, X, and the fragmentation of social media platforms.
I'm taking a break from the newsletter over Thanksgiving, but it will return to your inbox on December 5th.
For now, Here's Justin Trudeau making a milkshake With a cute old man on TikTok.
That's all for today—thanks again for subscribing. you can contact me via email, Instagram, x, blue skyAnd signals at McKenkelly.32.