Top 50 creator model journalists from Project C

Journalists aren’t waiting for distribution anymore. They are choosing their own channels, building their own audiences and credentialing each other.

Creator model journalism is here and it is thriving.

Today, Project C drops The Top 50 Creator Model Journalists for the United States.

At a time when fascist media is becoming mainstream and legacy outlets continue to thrash against their business models, it’s pretty damn refreshing to see journalists go straight to their audiences.

The Top 50 list was spearheaded by Liz Kelly Nelson who runs Project C.

The C in Project C stands for “creator” and the idea for this venture came about when Liz was working as a news exec at Vox. In her last couple years there, she watched closely the dual shift of audiences getting their news through their phones and of journalists leaving newsrooms to go independent. This list is surely the first of many as we are still at the beginning of this movement.

What you won’t see on the list of Top 50 Creator Model Journalists is worker-owned newsrooms. You could make an argument that worker-owned news is part of the creator journalism space, but I see this omission as intentional because the public culture of worker-owned newsrooms and creator journalists is fairly distinct.

As I said in my prediction, creator journalists are currently not collaborating as much as we see worker-owned cooperatives teaming up (across newsrooms). That will likely change this year and next—frankly, because it has to. The headwinds are too strong from a government that hates the press and from the handful of billionaires pulling the strings of public opinion. I fully believe we can counter them, at least we have to try, and the only way we have a chance is by working together as much as possible.

Creator journalists tend to start solo and sometimes build up a team. What I think we’re going to see next is more of you co-promoting or even co-operating while still remaining separate entities, especially when you have a ton of audience overlap.

The other thing I want to point out is the revenue streams. Reader-funded revenue was the top income stream among this list of journalists. This is fairly unique in the creator economy where sponsorships, brand deals and platform payouts dominate. Creator journalists prioritize their editorial independence away from big tech and mega corporations, and while audience-backed revenue is more challenging at launch, it’s far more resilient to those powerful headwinds than any other revenue stream.

The Top 50 team includes Liz Kelly Nelson, Justin Bank, Ryan Kellett, Blair Hickman, Kathy Baird, Anna Loy, and James Bareham.

Check out their list, their methodology and their reflections live now.

—Lex

P.S. I’ll be back Saturday with another hot take about Substack’s shiny new $1.1B valuation. I know, I know. I’m sorry but it’s not clocking to some of you that I’m standing on business.

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