The Garden Harvest: 11/28/25

Your weekly digest on the intersection of the Creator Economy and Legacy Media.

Just a short update today as we ease into the Thanksgiving weekend. I hope you’re all enjoying the break, and that yesterday was filled with good food, good company, and a little time to breathe.

FRESH CLIPPING

The great convergence

As 2025 starts drawing to a close, it’s time to start thinking about where we’re headed into next year. Colin McRae breaks it down in his recent post.

The line between creators and traditional media is disappearing fast as we’ve been writing for the past 12 months. But the numbers point to 2026 as a potential tipping point.

Creator ad spend is exploding, growing four times faster than the rest of the industry. YouTube, TikTok, and Meta are on track to out-earn all of traditional media in ad revenue for the first time, and nearly half of advertisers now consider creators a mandatory buy (we’re far from them seeing creators as true partners, but one thing at a time).

Simultaneously, other formats are taking off. Live events, sports, real-time commerce, short-for…