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Patreon Should Buy Substack to Save Creators

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Let me tell you a dirty little secret: Every media company you know is panicking. Traffic from social media is declining, consumers have subscription fatigue, and the advertising market is still sagging. As a result, layoffs are rampant. More than 500 journalists lost their jobs in January alone. You know who else is panicking? Creators, who have been told that creator economy startups like Patreon and Substack will help them escape the shackles of these media companies and run their own businesses. While social media and search engines may send them some traffic, they are subject to similar declines as larger media organizations, making it harder to grow. The real winners have been the platforms that aggregate user attention and turn content creators of all sizes into commodity suppliers—YouTube, X, TikTok, Instagram. The societal results of the evolution of our media ecosystem have been mixed. Mark Zuckerberg owns half of the island of Kauai, tech CEOs are buying yachts left and righ

Patreon Should Buy Substack to Save Creators *]:block [&>*]:mt-2 [&>*]:pt-2 mt-4" > Home Newsletter Columnists Columns Podcast Products Events Guides Consulting *]:block space-y-2"> Sign in *]:block space-y-2 py-2 my-2 border-y border-dashed border-homeborder" > Search About us Careers Advertise with us The team FAQ Help center DALL-E/Every illustration. By Evan Armstrong Napkin Math Evan Armstrong was a lead writer at Every who explored profit and power in technology in Napkin Math. Napkin Math Patreon Should Buy Substack to S ave Creators The solution to the problem of social media is to bui

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