Independent Journalists Redefine Media Power through Creator Platforms
From left to right: Tom LoBianco, Sarakshi Rai
At the 2025 Mid-Atlantic MarCom Summit in Arlington, the session “The Rise of Independent Journalists and the New Creator Platforms” underscored how media disruption is opening new frontiers for communications professionals. Moderated by Sarakshi Rai, head of social media at The Hill, the conversation featured journalist Chris Cillizza, Tom LoBianco co-founder of 24sight News, Liz Kelly Nelson, founder of Project C, Charles Birney, co-founder of Podville Media, and Kevin Cirilli, founder of mtf.tv.
For marketers and communicators, the takeaway was clear: the media landscape has fractured into ecosystems driven by individual voices—and audiences trust them more than institutions. “There’s no secret of mainstream media,” said Cillizza. “It’s a bad business. The business doesn’t work—it’s too big, too many people.” Laid off from CNN, he rebuilt his audience through authenticity and persistence. “I started making a video every day from my home office—no microphone, no lighting—just me. I went from zero to 125,000 YouTube subscribers because people want authenticity.”
Authenticity, said Cirilli, is now the new currency of influence. “The executives who lost the trust of the country don’t realize political journalism is less trusted than Congress,” he said. “For the first time, influencers and creators will surpass legacy media in ad revenue. The money is coming to where we are, not where legacy media is.”
LoBianco added that both journalists and brands must learn the language of audience data. “You have to go and find a million of us now—and we have to find you. We need to be brand safe. That’s the key thing.” For communicators, that means understanding which independent voices align with a company’s tone, values, and credibility.
Rai framed the conversation around trust. “Ask someone under 40 where they get their news, and chances are they’ll mention a non-newsroom podcaster or YouTuber,” she said. “No one really is getting their news from mainstream media.”
For PR professionals, this shift presents both challenge and opportunity. The creators’ discussion revealed that independence is freedom and it’s entrepreneurship. “Breaking news, six dollars a subscriber takes a long time to add up to a mortgage,” Cillizza quipped. “Substack and YouTube haven’t cracked sponsorships. That’s where communicators can help.”
Cirilli described his success building Meet the Future into a multimedia platform through iHeartMedia partnerships: “You’ve got to hustle. Demand new ideas. The public wants new solutions, new energy—and they don’t want the old guard.”
Birney, who co-founded Podville Media, highlighted generational shifts. “My 25-year-old twins couldn’t be more different—one reads manga, the other the newspaper every day,” he said. “That’s what we’re all trying to understand—how people of every age are consuming news differently.”
For communicators, the insight is profound: influence now flows from creators who own their audiences, control their distribution, and embody authenticity. As Cillizza concluded, “We’re all sellers now. Please support the kind of journalism you want to see in the world—because if you don’t support it, it won’t exist.”
