News Organizations Are Starting to Embrace Creator-Model Journalists

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Last year, concerns about online content creators displacing traditional journalists appeared to reach a fever pitch. A Pew Research Center survey found that 37 percent of eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds and 26 percent of thirty- to forty-nine-year-olds in the US regularly got news from “news influencers.” Another survey, by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, revealed that on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, legacy news organizations were struggling to compete for attention with “a range of so-called online influencers, creators, and assorted personalities, as well as smaller, alternative outlets and ordinary people.” Meanwhile, according to Gallup, 36 percent of US adults reported having “no trust at all” in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately, and fairly.” At the same time, both the Biden and Trump teams granted influencers press credentials and exclusive interviews, further legitimizing their role in the media ecosystem and spiking fears among those in the traditional media that they were facing an existential threat. 

However, recent months have shown growing recognition among some traditional journalists of the value in viewing their relationship with so-called influencers as complementary or collaborative, rather than competitive. 

Liz Kelly Nelson, a former VP for Vox.com who now runs Project C—a newsletter “supporting, amplifying, and normalizing independent content-creator model journalism”—has advocated taking creator-journalists seriously. Rather than dismissing influencers wholesale as incompatible with traditional journalistic values, she encourages a nuanced view of the spectrum of different kinds of news-adjacent content creators. Nelson recently published a map of the current news ecosystem in which she made the distinction between creator-model journalists—“independent journalists producing original work using core journalistic principles” (such as Taylor Lorenz, Marisa Kabas, and Bisan Owda)—and “news influencers,” who by her definition are online personalities who deliver “takes,” more akin to the opinion section of internet news (like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Hasan Piker). 

In a January edition of her newsletter titled “Who gets to be called a journalist in 2025?” Nelson asked: “What if, instead of gatekeeping, we focused on building a bigger, more inclusive definition of journalism—one that embraces the new voices shaping the future of news?” She argued that values like “tradition,” “training,” and “credibility” still matter—but trust is earned differently by creator-model journalists. Rather than viewing influencers as threats to journalism’s survival, Nelson encourages the traditional press to learn from them and reflect on how the industry might evolve alongside changing audience behaviors.

Edward Hurcombe, a lecturer in public relations at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, noted in his paper on “newsfluencers,” published in September, that these creators’ “authentic,” personable, and “transparent” approaches could help make journalism more relevant and accessible to younger audiences disengaged with conventional news. However, he also acknowledged potential conflicts: “newsfluencers’ ‘authentic’ style can conflict with traditional journalistic notions of detached objectivity,” he wrote, and bad actors might exploit the trust they build with their audiences for political and monetary gain. But these issues are not specific to any particular platform. Rather than focusing on the medium, Nelson argues for defining what fact-based information looks like and advancing those standards across platforms.

Given that traditional training or career pathways in journalism are inaccessible to many, embracing creator-model journalists could help to diversify both the press corps and the audiences it reaches. Music journalist Sean Adams wrote for his September newsletter that “the rise of influencers and content creators isn’t just a trend; it’s a fundamental shift in how stories are told and who gets to tell them. While the often pale, male, and stale old guard may resist, the democratization of the media has the potential to breathe new life into journalism—making it more inclusive, diverse, and reflective of the audiences it serves.”

In some ways, the work of content creators and conventional journalists isn’t fundamentally all that different. In his 2021 Nieman Lab prediction, Adweek senior media reporter Mark Stenberg recognized the shared struggle: “Though we like to consider ourselves distinct by [dint] of our craft’s supposedly elevated calling, journalists are really just creators by a different name. We all create content designed for consumption on the internet; we all cultivate a niche and then work to make ourselves indispensable to it; and we all make use of tools and platforms that turn our skill sets into revenue.” Hurcombe similarly argues that the conditions of “newsfluencers” reflect problems endemic to the news industry, such as individualized and precarious labor amid an increasingly partisan and platformized news culture. 

Recognizing these common goals and challenges, some publishers have been taking steps to foster collaborations. The American Press Institute, working with the Knight Election Lab, has been studying “ideas, concerns, and processes for effective partnerships with influencers, defined as a trusted community messenger with a platform on or off social media.” Last month, the organization published resources to help news publishers navigate such collaborations, including an ethical road map as well as contract guidelines and templates. And last week, Adriana Lacy, who runs a consulting firm for publishers, launched Influencer Journalism, “a platform dedicated to merging traditional journalism with the world of digital influencers,” offering services such as influencer partnership matching and management, as well as short-form-video consulting and production support.

Embracing, rather than resisting, elements of creator-model journalism could point a path forward for engaging audiences and rebuilding trust with disaffected news audiences. As Diane Sylvester wrote in Editor and Publisher on Tuesday, “as the media landscape continues to change, collaboration between traditional journalists and content creators is emerging as a way forward. Traditional outlets can learn from influencers’ audience engagement strategies, while creators benefit from established journalistic practices.”

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