The rise of the content creator has received significant attention this year. It was the focus of my presentation at the recent INMA CEO Roundtable, and it was highlighted in a new Webinar following the release of the The News Creators Project by FT Strategies and WAN-IFRA and supported by the Google News Initiative.

I wanted to pull out some highlights from the Webinar and report that I haven’t yet touched on in coverage of content creators. 

The research surfaced three categories of news creator, and while creators can belong to multiple categories or move between them, most have a primary role. The categories are:

• Investigator: Uncovers new information through in-depth original research and reporting. This segment is analogous to reporters in traditional newsrooms.

• Explainer: Helps audiences make sense of events and the news by making it simple, digestible and engaging. 

• Commentator: Interprets and reacts to events and the news bringing their opinions, perspectives, and personal judgment into their content.

George Montagu, head of insights and senior manager at FT Strategies, noted in the Webinar that creators can shift between categories, using the example of V Spehar, the creator behind Under The Desk News (3.6M+ TikTok followers).

“V is majority in the explainer category, but then where a story does personally affect them, they are quite willing to inject their personal opinion and what they are thinking,” he said.

Spehar appeared on the Webinar as part of a panel discussion among creators, saying their journey into content creation started because they were not being communicated to in the way that they wanted to be. 

“So I decided, well, I’ll just give it a try and do it myself,” said Spehar, who has interviewed former American presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, among others. “And here we are.”

The report also contained 11 themes. All are worth digging into, but among the insights that stood out to me:

• Some traditional news organisations are actively working with news creators, while others view this emerging class with skepticism — given perceptions of loose adherence to journalistic standards and norms.

• Some news creators intentionally distance themselves from traditional media or the label of “journalist,” aiming to present a trustworthy alternative that isn’t bound by conflicts of interest, institutional compromise, or limitations on creative/editorial freedom.

• Creators hold diverse, often non-traditional views on objectivity, with some arguing complete neutrality is unattainable or even undesirable in favour of transparency about your own perspective.

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