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After over half a decade covering the creator economy for his own publications and for Colin & Samir’s Publish Press, Nathan Graber-Lipperman is working to make the internet feel smaller; to get people offline and gathered in person.
His bet is on physical space, print magazines, and weekly in-person events.
In this episode:
💼 The evolution of creator brand partnerships
💰 The economics behind a print quarterly magazine
👥 A two-tier event playbook driving his business
— Natalia Pérez-González, Assistant Editor
Going OFFLINE
Nathan Graber-Lipperman has been covering creators for over half a decade. Now, he wants to make the internet feel smaller.
This is the thesis behind Powder Blue, his Chicago-based creative studio, and the standard by which he measures success.
Powder Blue currently encompasses a print magazine, a newsletter, and community events for Chicago creatives craving a physical space for their work to exist among peers — people like “the 19-year-old camera nerd, the 27-year-old bookworm, the music-and-film spelunker.”
"Those three people interact with the internet and art and culture in different ways. But if those three people can be in a room and have a good conversation, that's how we know we're successful."
Some of the core Powder Blue team. From left to right: Shua Buhangin, videographer; Moy Zong, designer; and Nathan Graber-Lipperman, founder.
As an undergrad at Northwestern’s Medill Journalism School, Nate was writing and podcasting about online culture long before most traditional outlets caught up.
After graduating in 2021, and after a stint managing creators out of his Lakeview apartment, he launched Creator Mag in 2022 — a newsletter and quarterly print magazine profiling the artists, filmmakers, and online personalities reshaping culture.
Later that year, Nate landed a job as a writer for Colin and Samir's Publish Press and moved to Los Angeles. He spent nearly two years there, helping grow the newsletter from under 50,000 subscribers to over 130,000. Creator Mag sat dormant in the meantime, while Nate got a crash course in publishing rigor and delved deeper into the creator world.
At the end of November 2024, Nate left Publish and returned to Chicago to relaunch Creator Mag.
"The first thing they tell you not to do in business is bring in any overhead costs," he told us. So, by January 19, 2025, he had keys to a studio in Chicago’s Pilsen, a vibrant, artistically rich neighborhood, and was bootstrapping Powder Blue with his savings.
He’d fallen in love with the city as a student, and felt its creative scene was structurally underserved — a place full of talented artisans who tend to leave for bigger markets the moment they break through. The studio was meant to give those who stayed a place to gather.
Creators gathering for a Powder Blue Show Your Work night, a weekly showcase to present ongoing creative projects.
Nate is Powder Blue’s only full-time employee, though he has a network of paid contributors. He makes his living entirely through these ventures:
70–75% from brand partnerships
20% from product sales — magazines and apparel
The latest issue of Creator Mag — 96 pages, perfect-bound, 12 contributors — costs $15-16 per unit and sells for $30.
With the remainder split between event ticket sales and YouTube AdSense.
He aims to push the revenue mix closer to a 50/50 split between brand partnerships and direct community contributions (subscription, apparel, event tickets).
At the start of 2026, Nate killed Creator Mag and rebranded it to OFFLINE to more aptly reflect his current mission: covering artists and online personalities who wield their internet influence to create real-world impact.
This is why the overhead of a studio and the hassle of producing a physical magazine is so important for Nate; at every event, when YouTube and newsletter subscribers finally walk into Powder Blue for the first time, the internet, for one night, gets smaller.
Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn.
Subscribe to OFFLINE.
Learn more about Powder Blue.
Read our deep dive on the creator scene in Chicago.
The two-tier event playbook for community-powered media
From your Assistant Editor, Natalia Pérez-González — a couple of ideas that stuck with me as I listened through this week’s conversation ✍️.
Nate’s philosophy is all about giving creative work a physical form. Through community events, through a shared space, through a slick, 90-plus-page print magazine.
Powder Blue’s event calendar is structured around free drop-ins multiple times a month and ticketed block parties roughly four times a year — each tier does a specific, outcome-oriented job.
Tier 1: Free drop-ins — the top of the funnel
Powder Blue hosts Show-Your-Work nights, casual studio hangs, and occasional bowling tournaments. No tickets needed for entry, pizza on the house. Nate is explicit about the math: "We're not making money off these. If anything, we're shelling out $50 for pizza." (Not to mention paying for their studio.)
The early ones drew three or four people. Within months, attendance climbed to seven, then 10, then 12-15. By Powder Blue's most recent bowling night, two-thirds of the room were subscribers from YouTube, the newsletter, or Instagram followers who'd finally worked up the courage to show up.
The point: Wield free events as the mechanism to convert a passive online audience into a real-world community.
Tier 2: Block parties — the showcase
Four times a year, Powder Blue throws a ticketed "block party" timed to a magazine launch. These are programmed: featured creators from the issue host live conversations, the new print product debuts, and the energy from the free drop-ins compounds into something a brand partner can sponsor.
His rebrand, "celebration of life," event for the retiring Creator Mag drew in 60 people in a Chicago snowstorm. These block parties are the moments when the unpaid flywheel turns into revenue — magazine sales, ticket sales, sponsorship inventory.
This is a simple and clean event structure worth emulating for your own community efforts; a proven flow to get people offline and in-person.
