Francis Zierer

Lead Editor at Creator Spotlight. Reach me at: [email protected]

YouTuber

Apr 7, 2026

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11 min read

🔴 From W-2 to creator-talent contract

Macy Gilliam joined Morning Brew to write tweets — now she's on a creator contract with her own multi-million-view YouTube and a nearly-doubled salary. With one year left on her contract, what's next?

Francis Zierer

Newsletterist

Mar 31, 2026

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16 min read

🔴 The newsletter that became a social network

How, over the course of the last six years, a free newsletter turned into a social app with 400,000 members and ambitions to be "the next Tumblr."

Francis Zierer

Profile

Mar 17, 2026

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14 min read

🔴 $200k as a part-time B2B creator

How Vin Matano built a $200k brand deal business on 54k LinkedIn followers, then launched an agency that did $2.5M in its first full year.

Francis Zierer

Newsletterist

Mar 10, 2026

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13 min read

🔴 Integrity is a growth strategy

Words of Mouth newsletter creator Rachel Meade Smith on building an audience through integrity, learning to be a better businessperson, and writing a book to celebrate 10 years.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Mar 6, 2026

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18 min read

🔴 100 conversations later ...

What I've learned recording 100 episodes of The Creator Spotlight Podcast

Francis Zierer

Newsletterist

Mar 3, 2026

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11 min read

🔴 A $2.5M bet on food journalism

In advance of their launch, we spoke to Caper, a new food-world media startup with excellent pedigree — folks from Puck, Eater, New York, Vanity Fair, artnet, and more.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Feb 20, 2026

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11 min read

🔴 Surprise inside

What it is will shock you

Francis Zierer

Profile

Feb 17, 2026

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12 min read

🔴 How to get 1 billion short-form views

We spoke to Grant Beene, or @grantbeans, whose short-form sketch comedy videos represent the pinnacle of a genre born of Snapchat and Vine before maturing on TikTok.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Feb 6, 2026

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12 min read

🔴 Local media is pro-social media

Why local newsletter operator businesses work so well, an outcomes-versus-outputs perspective on creators and media workers generally, and a few thoughts on the future of local media.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Jan 16, 2026

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11 min read

🔴 The science of short-form video

A structural breakdown of the components that turned a single idea into a repeatable growth engine.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Jan 9, 2026

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10 min read

🔴 Your IP? No, our IP

I read the major social platforms' terms of service so you don't have to.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Jan 2, 2026

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7 min read

🔴 What is a creator in 2026?

Two years ago, I set out to to answer one question: What is a creator? One year ago, I landed on an answer. A year later, it shifts again. Plus, a call for guest submissions.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Dec 26, 2025

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10 min read

🔴 The best of Creator Spotlight 2025

Your favorite issue, my favorite issue, and our three most popular podcast episodes this year.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Nov 28, 2025

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10 min read

🔴 It doesn't matter if it's an ad

On the convergence of ads and entertainment, of creators and companies. It's all happening ... in the content economy!

Francis Zierer

Newsletterist

🔴 beehiiv's bet on the "content economy"

Nov 18, 2025

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13 min read

🔴 beehiiv's bet on the "content economy"

Tyler Denk, CEO and Co-founder at beehiiv, joins us to talk the implications of the company's Winter Release Event '25, what defines content built using beehiiv, and growing his own newsletter

Francis Zierer

Essay

🔴 The future of the creator economy is in-person

Oct 24, 2025

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12 min read

🔴 The future of the creator economy is in-person

How social media followings evolve into online communities and, in special cases, real-world communities.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Oct 10, 2025

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10 min read

🔴 Equity and exits for creators

If they're lucky, a creator might have a peak shelf life of 3-4 years. How should they capitalize on this? How should they leverage that period for lasting success?

Francis Zierer

Essay

🔴 "Learn marketing" is the new "learn to code"

Sep 26, 2025

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9 min read

🔴 "Learn marketing" is the new "learn to code"

Does Gen Alpha understand marketing better than anyone? Should journalists have to build personal brands? Is all media marketing now?

Francis Zierer

Essay

🔴 What we can learn from Indian microdramas

Sep 12, 2025

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11 min read

🔴 What we can learn from Indian microdramas

A look at the surging microdrama industry in India from guest writer Sabah Gurmat

Francis Zierer

Profile

Sep 9, 2025

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14 min read

🔴 Investing $60 million in creators

Discussing creators with non-media businesses ft. Billy Parks, Venture Partner on the Slow Ventures Creator Fund

Francis Zierer

Essay

Aug 29, 2025

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10 min read

🔴 Rewriting the creator–brand partnership playbook

Here are the ins and outs of working on brand deals, according to four experts Guest writer Brea Cubit investigates.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Aug 22, 2025

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11 min read

🔴 The four UGC creator archetypes

All content is user-generated, but user-generated content is its own category. Who creates UGC? How many ways can a creator participate in the UGC industry? Guest writer Arden Yum investigates.

Francis Zierer

Essay

Aug 8, 2025

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11 min read

🔴 How to build a defensible personal brand

In the post-TikTok creator economy, the quality of an idea has lost value to the effectiveness of its distribution

Francis Zierer

Essay

Jul 11, 2025

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13 min read

🔴 "You" is a creator

TIME Magazine named "You" their person of the year in 2006; this week, for the first time, they published a list of 100 top creators. What do these two things have in common and apart?

Francis Zierer

Essay

🔴 The 10 most useful things we learned in Q2

Jun 27, 2025

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14 min read

🔴 The 10 most useful things we learned in Q2

The best patterns, lessons, and analysis from our work in April, May, and June 2025

Natalia Perez-Gonzalez, +1