The Independent Creator Moment Is Here

Mark Stenberg has spent five years at Adweek covering the media industry, and right now he's watching a major shift towards creator-centered media. Independent creators are building real media companies from the ground up, and this year marked the moment the industry stopped treating that as a trend and started treating it as a fact.

From Austin Startup to Adweek: Mark stepped in to revamp a scrappy college magazine in Austin for four and a half years before heading to Northwestern to study the media business - and why it makes no money. This curiosity sent him to New York, Business Insider, and eventually Adweek. 📰

The Coming Out Moment for Independent Media: A 20 year old creator is breaking Hollywood records on YouTube. Substack writers are building full editorial teams. Mark says this year was the moment independent creators proved they could build real media companies from scratch. 🚀

Cannes Is a Sourcing Goldmine: Every year Adweek sets up camp at the Majestic Hotel and runs programming from sun up to sunset, from breakfast to soirees. As a reporter, Mark's real game plan is setting up one on ones with people from all corners of the world. 🌊

The Newsletter That Started as a Side Project: Mark built a personal Substack during the pandemic on top of his day job. That consistency is what landed him Adweek and now he's running a brand new newsletter, a more personal weekly read that goes out every Wednesday at 7pm. 📬

The Personal Element Always Wins: Mark's newsletter is seven months old and the feedback is clear. The personal opener, the stories from his week, the human texture. That is what readers keep coming back for. 💡