The Garden Harvest: 10/3/25
Your weekly digest on the intersection of the Creator Economy and Legacy Media.
Welcome back to the Garden Harvest.
Each week, we gather and curate the freshest insights from the worlds of Creators and Legacy Media, so you can stay rooted in what matters and spot new opportunities where others can’t.
Let’s get into it…
FRESH CLIPPINGS
Who wants to buy a YouTube channel?
It’s great to see the stuff we talk about at Open Gardens be highlighted in some of the top Hollywood reporting.
Lucas Shaw from Bloomberg included a great section in his weekly newsletter about YouTube. His main story is about Dhar Mann trying to raise over $300M with CAA Evolution to buy up other channels, who despite $50M in 2024 sales and $20M in profit, hasn’t been able to land a deal. Investors balked at his 15x profit multiple and at the broader disconnect: most YouTube businesses are still seen as single channels rather than scaled media companies.
But he then goes on to where things get interesting. Dhar and other massive creators are posting big profits, but the capital markets haven’t caught up yet. Lucas discusses how legacy investors struggle with valuation, while streamers still see creators as lucky to get a shot rather than equal partners. The irony, as he points out, is that both sides want what the other has: creators want reach, budgets, and legitimacy; Hollywood wants young audiences, loyalty, and formats that work online. The missing piece is getting on the same page about value.
The top YouTube channel is…
… Saturday Night Live???
According to new research from Digital i, SNL was the top U.S.-based YouTube channel in the first half of 2025 (beating even MrBeast) when measured by “reach” (unique viewers rather than raw views). SNL connected with 38.6 million unique viewers, thanks to a savvy mix of Shorts, classic sketch repackaging, and a 50th anniversary season that leaned into TV screen viewership on YouTube.
Don’t get the wrong idea. This isn’t a “See?! Legacy beat MrBeast!!!” kind of post. There’s a great lesson here.
As we know, “views” can be gamed, inflated, or repeated. “Reach” gets closer to showing cultural footprint.
And what’s striking. A legacy institution like SNL, with the right digital strategy, can do really well. It’s a reminder that legacy doesn’t just survive in the creator economy, it can thrive when they adapt formats to the platform. Comedy clips as vertical Shorts, anniversaries as tentpoles, even cast discovery online: all evidence that convergence isn’t theory anymore, it’s happening right now.
The last days of social media
James O’Sullivan writes a really smart take on a topic we’ve covered before here.
Feeds once built on authenticity are increasingly filled with AI-generated spam, bot avatars, and “semantic sludge”, i.e. content optimized for clicks rather than connection. Engagement rates across platforms are also dropping, even as synthetic material floods timelines. Social media feels less like conversation and more like consumption, with the “bot-girl economy” illustrating how real people and synthetic personas blur into the same transactional loop.
It’s not all doom. Rather, it’s a sign of potential change. Platforms that once promised intimacy now reward scale, speed, and automation. For creators, that raises a question: how do you cut through when the feed is drowning in sameness? For legacy players, the challenge is also opportunity: audiences are craving the signal in the noise. If “the last days of social media” are really here, the next era will belong to those who can restore context, meaning, and trust to what we watch.
Who knows, perhaps it’ll be going to the movies to see… a podcast?
GARDEN VIEW
Here’s comedy creator Curry Barker talking about his film Obsession, which Focus Features is looking to buy for more than $15 million, per Deadline.
The greatest thing about this is that Barker’s previous film (after building his following with comedy sketches on YouTube) was made for just $800.
Online talent is increasingly turning low-budget, high-ingenuity projects into studio-backed deals.
HARVEST QUOTE
“The transition from SEO to AEO is underway.”
— Tech consultant Shelly Palmer
Instead of ranking links, AI tools like Gemini, AI Overviews, and ChatGPT Search are deciding which brands and products to surface directly in answers.
This means content, too.
This is something that perhaps doesn’t get talked about enough… yet.
The takeaway for both creators and legacy is to make what you’re doing machine-readable with clean, structured data corroborated by external sources. That is, if you want to show up at the top of the results in the AI search era.
Have a great weekend…