Layoffs Hit Legacy Media. The Fix? Creators

Legacy outlets are betting on creators to save them. The question is whether they’ll actually let them lead.

Author

Shira Lazar
October 20, 2025

In the past year, we’ve watched a familiar cycle in the media: painful layoffs, followed by splashy announcements about “creator” bets. NBC News just cut around 150 staffers amid a broader restructuring. Paramount and Skydance are preparing thousands more cuts as they integrate their massive merger. Across the industry, the pace of job losses is still significant, even if it’s less extreme than 2020’s peak.

Against that backdrop, big brands are repositioning around personality-driven content. CNN International just launched CNN Creators, a weekly multiplatform program built in Doha that debuts October 23. The Washington Post has stood up a dedicated Creator Network, a third “newsroom” alongside News and Opinion, led by Sara Kehaulani Goo, plus an internal Creator Hub cohort to incubate social-first franchises. And Yahoo Creators is evolving into a true platform play, offering a 50/50 revenue share, commerce tools, and distribution across Yahoo’s network.

I’ve seen versions of this movie before.

Back in 2008, I pushed to cover the digital culture beat when I created my own role as the first blogger and vlogger for CBSNews.com. I even pitched The Evening News to cover VidCon one summer, trying to convince them that these YouTube stars were like The Beatles for the next generation online. They passed on the story.

Years later, I bumped into one of the producers at another network who was covering a YouTube event in Toronto called Buffer Festival. She said, “You knew it. You were early.” It was meant as a compliment, but there was a bite to it. Being early can be exciting, but it can also feel isolating and like you’re constantly being told no until everyone else finally gets it. It almost has a gaslight quality to it. But I digress.

That CBS role eventually led to me launching What’s Trending in partnership with CBS News in 2011. It was short-lived. While some public drama surrounded that time, few people knew that we were actually going to be folded into CNET for the 2nd season. The higher-ups didn’t see what we were covering as relevant to the institution at the time. To them, we were just a bunch of kids doing rogue things with the news online.

A few years later, in 2015, I was hired by HLN TV for The Daily Share as a contributor. Albie Hecht, who helped launch Nick Cannon’s career, hired me and promised I’d be able to do 60 Minutes-style interviews with creators. You can still find some of them online. But that too was short-lived, and so I went back to what I always did when gigs ended: focusing on my own digital media brand, What’s Trending.

My, how things have changed. Paramount recently acquired The Free Press, which, politics aside, is a pretty big deal. In many ways, Bari Weiss was a creator herself, launching an independent media company that just sold for around $150 million. It’s ironic and telling that the same institutions that once dismissed digital media are now buying creator-led outlets to stay relevant.

After all these years, I’ve got plenty of stories and a few beautiful scars to show for them. Here’s what I’ve learned from being part of the early building blocks of this space and watching the same cycle repeat itself. If you’re a traditional company now hiring creators, here’s what actually works and what falls flat from someone who’s lived on both sides.

Don’t Just Announce a “Creator Strategy.” Build One.

A press release isn’t a strategy. It’s easy to make a big announcement, but the real question is what happens on day two, three months in, or a year later. I’ve seen so many companies throw out the word “creator” for PR and then talk to people inside who admit no one actually knows what they’re doing. That’s wild, especially considering how many talented, experienced people are already out there looking to build something real.

CNN’s new format could be a good start, but a weekly show alone isn’t enough. What will really matter is if it becomes part of a larger company model and approach. That means training traditional on-air talent to think and act like creators, while helping creators integrate into the organization in a meaningful way. The opportunity is to use CNN’s existing resources, sales structure, and global reach to find a true win-win for both sides.

Right now, CNN has shown some early progress on social. Kaitlan Collins and Jake Tapper have been experimenting with more casual, first-person breaking news videos that feel closer to what creator-reporters like Aaron Parnas are doing. It’s a shift in the right direction, but it’ll take more than a few individual experiments to make the model stick.

The Washington Post’s approach makes sense for a different reason. They’ve built structure through a Creator Hub and a Creator Network, with clear leadership and buy-in. They also have history here. Their TikTok, launched with video producer Dave Jorgenson (who has since left), put them on the map for a younger audience. Taylor Lorenz also helped establish their digital culture coverage before most legacy outlets even had one. So they’ve already been moving in the right direction.

The Yahoo Creators rev-share program sounds big, but a 50/50 split isn’t exactly revolutionary. Platforms like MSN have been syndicating publisher content for years under similar terms. What’s changing now is that these legacy aggregators are finally recognizing creator content as “real” content, worthy of the same distribution they’ve long given to traditional publishers. It’s a mindset shift more than a business innovation, but it still opens the door for creators to reach broader audiences and new revenue. 

Co-Create, Don’t Just “Feature.”

Creators aren’t just faces for your feeds. They’re idea engines. If you want their best work, co-create IP with them and give them a real seat at the table. That means hiring people who have already been doing the work for years, not reinventing the wheel or asking for “brain-picking” sessions. Bring them in, pay them fairly, and let them lead.

If you’re an executive who sees the creator space as an opportunity, that’s great. But hire people who have lived and breathed this space since before it was trendy. Don’t just feature them for optics. Build with them.

The New York Times buying The Athletic is a great example of how legacy media can absorb independent IP and let it reshape the mothership. The Times eventually folded its sports desk into The Athletic’s operation because the audience trusted them more. That’s what happens when you treat independent creators as equals.

Cross-Platform, But Native to Each One.

Nothing makes a creator’s eyes glaze over faster than hearing, “Can you make this viral?” and “Can you just cut this TV segment down for TikTok?” CNN is calling its new show “multiplatform,” and The Washington Post’s cohort is built for social-first video. That’s the right direction.

If you’re serious, build native content for each platform with social producers who live there. Let creators decide what belongs on Shorts, what works on Reels, and what deserves a newsletter. Then measure success by audience retention and community growth, not just vanity views.

Listen to the People You Hire.

This one sounds simple, but it’s where most companies fail. You can’t bring in creators and then try to smooth out the edges that made them interesting in the first place. If you want authenticity, you have to protect it. Trust the people you hire on topics, guests, cadence, and tone, and back them up when their ideas feel new or risky. That’s where the real magic happens.

Show Up IRL.

Creators don’t just exist online. They host, teach, perform, and build community in real life. If you’re serious about the space, your leaders should be showing up at VidCon, TwitchCon, Cannes Lions, or even local creator events, anywhere the culture is being shaped. That’s how you build trust and learn what’s next. Because when the industry hits rough patches, people remember who actually showed up.

The Creator Mindset

If there’s one thing legacy media can learn from creators, it’s how to think like one. The creator mindset is about being nimble, flexible, and consistent. It’s about experimenting constantly, learning from what the audience responds to, and doubling down when something connects. It’s data-driven, collaborative, and grounded in community.

Creators don’t wait for perfect conditions or endless approvals. They move fast, test, adjust, and build in public. Most importantly, they add value to their communities instead of just extracting from them. If traditional media can combine that spirit of experimentation and contribution with their resources, storytelling experience, and reach, they won’t just survive this next era. They’ll actually lead it.

My Hot Take: Layoffs hurt. They also force choices. Some organizations will use “creator” as a slogan. Others will redesign their operations around a simple truth: audiences now follow people, not mastheads. The latter group, the ones building systems, sharing upside, and showing up, will earn trust and revenue far faster than those treating creators like a PR tactic.

If you’re a newsroom leader or brand executive, don’t just hire a creator. Invite one to build with you.

Shira Lazar

Other headlines to check out:

AI

Creator Economy

Web3 

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Where I’ll be coming up…

NAB NYC
Creators Unplugged: Inside the Hustle, Heart & Hacks
Thursday, October 23, 12pm
Javits Center, Theater C

Click this link and use my free code “EM15” if you’re in NYC and want to attend.

Nvidia GTC DC
October 27-29

If you’re curious about the future of AI or an expert and want in, I have a community link to register here: https://nvda.ws/3KDOWbN
You can join in person or reserve your spot to tune in virtually.

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