Covers creators and streaming. Bylines at Simon Owens's Media Newsletter. Desk record: 67 signals cited since July 2026, 50 published. Updated November 3, 2026.
Indexed from published reporting. Not a medianexis staff byline. Any journalist can ask to be removed.
Simon Owens reports that Business Insider found Paramount streaming leadership telling employees this summer that Paramount+ will add a free tier, micro dramas, interactive ad formats, and a TikTok-style feed with comments and AI clipping.
Sep 27Simon Owens reports that nearly three years into Mark Thompson’s tenure as CNN CEO, the network still “fundamentally operates like a TV network” despite a paywall launch, and now faces a Paramount-WBD takeover with no assurance David Ellison will keep him.
Sep 25Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Workweek CEO Adam Ryan is shifting the company from a handpicked newsletter roster into a vertically integrated platform where thousands of practitioners publish, host events and monetize expertise.
Sep 25Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Design Anthology, founded in 2014 to cover Asia-Pacific design, has grown into print, digital subscriptions, advertising, events, and a YouTube channel with more than half a million subscribers.
Sep 19Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that publishers in Similarweb’s Top 100 Media index spent an estimated $113 million on paid search in July 2026 as organic referrals keep eroding amid zero-click search.
Sep 14Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that veteran tech reporter Alex Heath, who built an independent Substack after leaving traditional media, has joined Sound Ventures as a partner. He says he will keep running his media business alongside the new investing role.
Sep 14Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Netflix is renewing early podcasts like Murder with My Husband and The Pete Davidson Show while adding new titles from Katt Williams and Harlan Coben.
Sep 3Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Doing Things CEO Reid Hailey traces the company’s path from the anonymous Instagram meme account Shithead Steve to a 75-plus-employee studio behind Recess Therapy, Bob Does Sports, and Breezy Golf.
Sep 3Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Workweek, a B2B creator platform with a Puck-like model, raised new funding to offer its publishing tools to creators outside its vetted core network.
Sep 2Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Simon Owens’s newsletter previews a paid piece asking why YouTube is chasing Emmy recognition, alongside a companion discussion on whether BuzzFeed and HuffPost’s scale-first model was ever viable.
Aug 30Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Jomboy Media grew from a 2017 Yankees podcast into a 60-person sports media company: more than 20 channels, 14 full-time creators, an in-house ad operation and an original sports IP franchise, Warehouse Games.
Aug 27BuzzFeed laid off 10 HuffPost Union members, cutting the national desk from seven reporters to three. The desk numbered 14 a year ago — the once-Pulitzer-winning newsroom keeps unwinding.
Aug 27A newsletter floats Netflix licensing music videos, since video podcasts are only 6% of YouTube watch time versus 33% for music videos. It suggests an ad-supported tier plus a premium add-on, mirroring how YouTube and Spotify monetize music and audiobooks.
Aug 25Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Prime Video Channels now drives nearly 70% of specialty streaming subs, per Puck, with 20% of sign-ups leading to another service within six months. Amazon profits as the aggregator, not just the content spender.
Aug 21Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that YouTube is offering top channels millions to upload exclusively for a period, reviving upfront payments it abandoned years ago as Netflix, Disney and Paramount court its biggest stars.
Aug 21Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that after 30+ tests since 2024, the Post found flexible, pay-per-article access lifts subscription conversion and retention rather than cannibalizing it. Anonymous visitors, not loyal readers, proved the best audience for these short-term offers.
Aug 20Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that The New Yorker says roughly 20% of subscribers regularly listen to AI-narrated articles, and the Wall Street Journal’s narration feature has been used 5 million times in the past year, per CJR.
Aug 19Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that CJR reports rising friction as NYT Opinion expands original reporting on beats news staff already cover. The tension raises a real question: what happens if Opinion’s influence eventually eclipses the newsroom’s own.
Aug 14Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Simon Owens pushes back on the theory that YouTube’s Peacock tie-up is slop insurance, arguing it’s really a Premium subscriber play. Live NFL games lure sign-ups, then YouTube funnels them into its own ecosystem of sports-adjacent creators and podcasts.
Aug 13YouTube doubled Partner Program thresholds for Shorts, pushing creators toward long-form video where TV viewing and blue-chip ad dollars live. The move signals Shorts is meant as a marketing funnel, not a standalone payout, unlike rivals TikTok and Instagram.
Aug 13Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that YouTube is raising Partner Program thresholds to 8,000 watch hours or 20M Shorts views, up from 4,000 and 10M. The move aims to choke off spammy, MFA-style channels before they can monetize and drag down ad quality platform-wide.
Aug 13Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Disney is reportedly merging Hulu and Disney+ into one app, but the analyst argues ESPN should also fold in as a tile, not stay separate.
Aug 13Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Simon Owens flags the Peacock/YouTube tie-up as a bigger deal than it looks, pointing to microdrama’s spammy growth as a parallel trend. Both point to distributors chasing wherever attention already lives instead of building walled gardens.
Aug 13Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter reports that Simon Owens argues free ad-supported streaming channels give creators a TV-like distribution outlet beyond YouTube and social platforms. The bigger point: FAST is becoming infrastructure for the creator economy, not just a home for old cable reruns.
Aug 13