Welcome to Issue #8 of the Means of Creation weekly news roundup where we break down the latest news on the passion economy, including the happenings related to platforms, creators, startups, and trends.

This Week’s Interview: Aella

This week we interviewed Aella, an OnlyFans creator who is in the top 0.08% of all creators on the platform. 

Per recent media reports, OnlyFans now has around 30 million registered users and around 450,000 content creators. This includes well-known celebrities/influencers such as Cardi B and Bella Thorne. 

Some highlights from our conversation with Aella:

• Aella’s backstory and what led her to becoming a creator on OnlyFans
• What creators in other fields can learn from OnlyFans
• What people misunderstand about OnlyFans creators and subscribers
• Shifts in societal attitudes towards sex work
• How the rise of OnlyFans affects the broader social platform landscape
• What new software products are needed for this segment of creators

Find it as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Breaker or wherever you listen to podcasts, or as a video on YouTube here. Or subscribe to the Means of Creation YouTube Channel.

Top of Mind

Could the Trump bump turn into a Trump slump?
The New York Times is thriving in chaos // Peter Kafka, Vox

TLDR:

• As we are sure you heard, over the weekend Joe Biden was officially elected as the next President of the United States. 
• The New York Times has seen strong growth in subscriber numbers since first focusing on digital subscriptions a few years ago. They added 400k subscribers in July, August and September of 2020 and over 2 million in the past year. 
• The political news cycle surrounding Trump has led to many readers paying for subscriptions, especially to trusted sources, to keep up to date on the news. 

So what?

• Trump helped create record subscribers for a number of news publications. But what does it mean if the Biden Presidency is less volatile than the Trump Presidency? Could the success of the New York Times, Washington Post and others over the past few years change due to the new political landscape?
• Downstream effects of this are that media organizations may stop growing, or even start shrinking. There could be internal cost cutting and fewer media acquisitions. 
• If these publications do cut costs, it will continue to be especially hard for journalistic labor that’s already going through a tough time. 
• Additionally, if slowing growth leads to lower company valuations, it becomes increasingly hard to recruit executive talent that has compensation tied to stock options or grants. 
• In September, the NYT introduced a new CEO: Meredith Kopit Levien. We think this will be her defining challenge.

California Approves Prop 22
Prop 22 Gives Uber and Lyft a New Model for Gig Economy Workers // Josh Eidelson, Bloomberg

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