#audience-monetization

#audience-monetization

The clever and stylish ad, which debuted in October 2025, was for the Google Pixel 10 phone and Google's partner on the release, T-Satellite from T-Mobile. And it was written, codirected, edited, and starred in by Cooper, host of the wildly popular podcast Call Her Daddy and founder and CEO of the millennial- and Gen Z-focused media company Unwell.

Most founders spend their energy on social media posts and paid ads while ignoring the audience they've already built. You have people's email addresses. They gave them to you. And you're not talking to them, or you're sending them content that doesn't deserve their attention. With over 4.4 billion email users worldwide, the newsletter you could be writing is the growth channel most likely to change your business. The founders who figure this out build something no algorithm can take away.

Nope, not " Melania" - though the sort-of-documentary about the first lady did do better than industry folks had projected, bringing in $7 million in its first weekend. The real hit of the weekend was made by someone you probably haven't heard of, unless you are a very specific kind of online person: " Iron Lung," a horror/sci-fi movie, written, directed by, and starring Mark Fischbach, known to his fans as Markiplier on YouTube, where he has 38.2 million subscribers.

For 2026, I keep coming back to one truth: The future of journalism depends on our ability to diversify revenue far more intentionally. For years, I believed one of my former employers was among the strongest examples of this model. During my tenure there, they had newsletter sponsorships, events, digital and print advertising, and a clear playbook for how each line supported the others. Today's landscape requires an even deeper level of diversification. It's not enough to have multiple revenue lines.