The Garden Harvest: 8/29/25
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
From Solo Act to Studio
In Open Gardens land, it’s practically a sin not to talk about anything Neil Waller says, so here we have it. In his latest piece for Fast Company, he makes the case that the smartest creators aren’t just making content anymore and calling it a day. They’re building entire studios. We’ve discussed this before here — a single personality has a ceiling: burnout risk, limited formats, one revenue stream. A studio, on the other hand, means teams, IP development, and the ability to scale like a media company.
Legacy has long known the power of building institutions rather than individuals. But now, creators are catching up. What happens when this shift fully plays out and creators have an infrastructure that looks a lot more like Hollywood (just faster, leaner, and audience-first)?
IRL on the rise (again)
Last week we highlighted Megan Lightcap’s post about IRL events as the next creator frontier, but it’s not just them chasing this trend.
A24 dropped $12M to buy and renovate the historic Cherry Lane Theater in Manhattan, transforming it into a 167-seat cultural hub with theater, comedy, music, film screenings, and a Frenchette-run restaurant. Opening in September with programming curated by Sofia Coppola and artists like Natalie Palamides.
All of this while Netflix is building 100,000-square-foot Houses and Lionsgate has its John Wick attraction in Vegas.
Quibi was right (?)
This fun piece from Tony ManFred best recaps what a lot of people have been thinking about lately: Maybe Quibi didn’t have it wrong after all?
Because, as it turns out, the internet is all about exactly what Quibi bet on: repeatable shows, short-form content, and phones as the dominant screen. From Subway Takes to TikTok interview formats, creators have cracked the code Quibi tried and failed (spectacularly) to scale: consistent, host-driven, bingeable programming that algorithms love.
The joke’s on Quibi, but the lesson’s on us. Sometimes a failure is just early to the right idea.
GARDEN VIEW
Dive into the world of knowledge creators with this panel from CONNECT 2025. This type of creator isn’t chasing laughs or spectacle, they build audiences around expertise.
In a media landscape crowded with noise, knowledge creators can stand out by offering clarity. For legacy producers, that looks a lot like the DNA of journalism, documentaries, and some unscripted content, but born digital and ready to scale.
HARVEST QUOTE
“A streamer cutting jobs doesn’t cut your talent or passion—it just means it’s time to find new ways to shine.”
— Isabel Schultz, Director of Content Distribution and US Operations for Digital Smiles, offering some grounded, optimistic advice for anyone navigating the current turbulence in media
It’s worth reading her full post.
Have a great week…