Gianluca Fiorelli: But what I was thinking, for instance, in the case of using X posts, is to connect this to entities. So, the journalist, you know—let’s say the columnist of a prestigious newspaper, but also the journalist of a niche publication, very specialized in a single topic. 

Because it’s not something that you see so frequently in the news sector. Maybe it's not in the U.S., but certainly not here in Spain or in Italy—where journalists have their own, let's say, social profiles, but they talk as themselves, as a person, not as the journalist of…

So how much should news publishers start thinking about their journalists—at least their top journalists—not only as journalists but also as content creators in the context of the creator economy?

John Shehata: Yes, absolutely. There’s a name I want to bring up here. Let me get you the name. Okay, the CEO of The Atlantic, Nicholas Thompson.

I worked with him closely back at Condé Nast. We were speaking, and he started doing these LinkedIn videos, like “What’s happening today?” Very simple videos, right? One-minute long, and what he shared was like, “This is what’s happening in the technology sphere today.” And it’s grown so big now. He has hundreds of thousands of followers, and so on. So he started small, just tapping into this.

I think the first step is you just need to start. Michael King is just now starting Instagram videos, and he’s saying something like, “Oh, maybe we’re too old; maybe that’s why we’re not doing it. I’m going to start.” And I’m guilty of that as well.

But when we talk about news organizations, we’re not saying that everyone in the news organization needs to become a creator. I actually wrote an article about this, and I said that the first step is to identify who has the appetite to do that. Who is already vocal on social media? Who’s already sharing content? Empower these kinds of users? 

That’s the first step. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If there are some of your journalists and writers who already have a presence as creators, start empowering them, train them, and see what they need.

The other thing is that you need to start thinking about the hiring process, right? Because content isn’t just the written format. Now there’s the visual—video and audio format. Who are the creators out there, with a good reputation, who are reliable, that you can bring into your news organization? So that’s the second step.

And then, slowly, start seeing which topics your organization can cover in different formats. CNN is now creating a Creators group, and Wired, too.

Eight years ago at Condé Nast, I presented this idea and said, “Hey, we need to make more of our writers into creators.” But the idea was shut down. There was this fear that, “Hey, if we empower all these creators and writers and journalists, what happens when they leave us?”
I think news organizations are beyond this now, already.

Wired, for example, saw a 94% jump in subscriptions because of the creators they empowered. So, it definitely benefits the organization overall.

Gianluca Fiorelli: Yes, I totally believe in this. Also, because I see, outside of the news industry or the publishing industry, when brands can find brand advocates inside the company, it can be really effective.

Sometimes, maybe it’s not a good idea to have, let’s say, a CEO do it. Because maybe you have a CEO like Elon Musk. Better not to have someone like Elon Musk doing the branding for you. But let’s say it’s people who are more relatable to the public…

John Shehata: Yes.

Gianluca Fiorelli: …not too big, but someone your customers can relate to. And I’ve seen very big success with these kinds of things, because people then go to your brand or your website because there is this person. 

And related to the fear people have. What do we do when journalists go from—I don’t know—from newspaper A to newspaper B? To the competition, for instance. I mean, this is life. You cannot do anything about it. But what you can do is say, “This person started with us.” It’s the alumni philosophy, recognizing where these people started.

So I think this can be used as a way to keep using the old content. A way to still bring people in and to establish the brand. If we just talk in very specific semantic search terms, if we cut all the boundaries from that entity—which is so important—then you are losing all the benefits that entity was bringing to you. You can maintain it, even if it’s just in an archive or something like that.

But if you put it in evidence, you’re still receiving the benefit of what that person is doing now, even if they’re not working with you anymore.

John Shehata: Yes, and Gianluca, if you think about it, this applies to all aspects, regardless of whether it's a creator or not. Even if you have an amazing writer writing for you, right? Let’s say you’re The New York Times, and you have this writer and people like them—because people connect with people, regardless of the medium.

Gianluca Fiorelli: Exactly.

John Shehata: So I’m reading The New York Times, and the first page I open is this opinion piece by this writer. If this writer leaves and goes to another organization, I’m still following that writer. So it’s not only about creators on social media leaving and taking their readers with them. It’s true for anything. People follow people. People connect with people.

And that’s why we see more and more organizations—even SEO tool companies and big organizations—now have ambassadors, or they have faces, right?

I love what Ahrefs does with Tim. Tim is, in a way, the face of the company. He shares, he talks, and he expresses his opinions. And now, Ahrefs is somehow associated with Tim. When you think of Tim, you think of Ahrefs. When you think of Ahrefs, you think of Tim.

And this applies to many other companies, right? That example just came to my mind. So I think it’s healthy to have a face, so people can connect with your company, your brand, and your entity through that face. You know, when I think of Gianluca, I think of brand A or B, right? And when I think of brand A, I think of Gianluca as well.