medianexis.
Reporting index

Alyssa Mercante

Covers creators. Bylines at digiday.com. Desk record: 19 signals cited since August 2026, 18 published. Updated November 3, 2026.

Indexed from published reporting. Not a medianexis staff byline. Any journalist can ask to be removed.

Coverage

18 stories, newest first.RSS →
SiriusXM’s $160M Giggly Squad deal shows podcasts chasing creators, not shows

SiriusXM’s $160M Giggly Squad deal shows podcasts chasing creators, not shows

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that SiriusXM’s multi-year deal with Giggly Squad hosts Paige DeSorbo and Hannah Berner, reportedly worth $160 million, follows a sold-out four-night Madison Square Garden run.

Creators

SBA gives creator businesses an official classification code

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that the SBA issued its first small business classification guidance for content creators on October 15, placing creator-led businesses under NAICS code 5121, Motion Picture and Video Industries.

Oct 28
Creators

News creators struggle to monetize despite dominating Americans’ news diets

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that nearly 60% of Americans now get news from social media, yet creators describe news as “the most difficult category” for brand deals due to brand safety concerns.

Oct 27
Creators

Hollywood’s creator deals can leave talent signing away their own IP

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that as studios and streamers chase creator-led hits, lawyer Nima Tahmassebi warns broad work-for-hire clauses can have creators “signing away things they never meant to, like their own name, their persona.”

Oct 10
Creators

Dhar Mann’s $100M AWNY creator-brand goal is already pledged, he claims

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that Dhar Mann, Advertising Week’s first chief creator officer, says CMO pledges already exceed his $100 million creator-brand deal target, though he doesn’t expect contracts signed by week’s end.

Oct 6
Creators

Creators trade brand deals for cap-table stakes and sweat equity

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that the creator economy is moving past one-off brand deals into angel investing and sweat equity, with platforms like Cherub and agency JERi building infrastructure to get creators onto startup cap tables.

Sep 25
Creators

Women athletes lean on creator playbook to close the pay gap

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that Women’s sports revenue is climbing but individual athlete pay lags, so athletes are building creator businesses to close the gap.

Sep 21
Creators

IAB’s first Creatorfronts exposes the measurement gap blocking creator budgets

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that at IAB’s inaugural Creatorfronts, president James Douglas unveiled the Trusted Creator Brand Deal Initiative, a survey mapping where creator deals break down.

Sep 17
Creators

Molson Coors overhauls creator workflow, says engagement quadrupled

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that Molson Coors is replacing its TV-style approval process with faster, looser creator briefs, working with agency Movers+Shakers since March. The company says engagement with creator content has quadrupled but won’t share commercial results.

Sep 11
Creators

Digiday’s Q4 ins and outs for the creator economy

Digiday’s quarterly ins-and-outs list flags diversification over platform dependency, employee creators over firing them, and creator marketplaces folding into major platforms rather than standing apart.

Sep 8
Creators

Brands start briefing creators to win over AI chatbots, not just audiences

Digiday’s Seb Joseph and Alyssa Mercante report that marketers now weigh two things when spending on creators: whether they move human audiences and whether they move algorithms inside AI platforms. That second factor hasn’t hit pricing yet, but it is already shaping creator briefs.

Sep 5
Creators

Usage rights, not fees, are the real friction in creator deals

Marketers and agents tell Digiday that inconsistent usage-rights terms, not base fees, are driving up creator partnership costs. Brands increasingly seek perpetual usage, while pricing for paid usage, organic usage and exclusivity varies wildly with no shared standard.

Sep 4
Creators

Digiday maps payout rules across every major creator platform

Digiday compiled the follower thresholds, activity minimums, invitation status and payout terms for Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, X, Facebook and Snap.

Sep 1
Creators

Creator fee pricing is broken, and no one can agree on a fix

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that half of marketers misprice creator fees and 40% feel they overpaid, per a Billion Dollar Boy survey of 1,000 leaders. Tools like Fohr’s Price Check and BDB’s Companion aim to add transparency, but no industry-wide benchmark exists.

Aug 28
Creators

X swaps engagement-bait payouts for a quality-based creator fund

X’s Original Content Rewards Program launches Sept. 8, replacing its 2023 revenue-share model that paid creators for impressions regardless of content quality. Media buyers and agents tell Digiday X still isn’t top of mind for creators despite the change.

Aug 25
Creators

Brands are handing creators real C-suite titles, not just badges

Digiday’s Alyssa Mercante reports that brands like Katjes, Cool Sips, Cherub and Blenders are naming creators to genuine executive roles — chief creative, content or creator officer — with real input into strategy, not honorary titles.

Aug 21
Creators

USA Fencing bets on creators to build fandom ahead of 2028 Olympics

USA Fencing is deploying athlete-creators and cross-sport collabs years ahead of the LA Games, citing data that 49% of Gen Z fans discover sports through fan-made content. Since December 2025, its creator push has driven monthly impressions up 36.9% to 4.75 million.

Aug 19
Creators

Creator brand trips lose their spark as playbook goes stale

Digiday examines why the once-novel creator brand trip is losing impact, as oversaturation and formulaic execution dull audience response. Brands now compete for the same influencer rosters and content beats, making differentiation harder and ROI murkier.

Aug 16