As a legacy producer running a legacy-focused production company, I’m constantly asking a simple question:
Where do we actually have leverage in the creator economy?
In a recent conversation, RJ Larese, who runs one of the top creator management firms, Sixteenth, told me something both surprising and inevitable. Because studios and platforms are aggressively pursuing creator talent, he has opened a division dedicated solely to packaging and selling projects into the traditional system. They already have projects set up at streamers.
This will not be an isolated move.
The simple reaction from legacy producers is to chase one-off deals with individual creators. Attach one to a show. Adapt a channel. Test a collaboration.
But there may be a larger structural play.
The most future-proof production companies won’t behave like mini-studios.
They’ll behave like creator management agencies, run by producers who already possess the core skills required to build them: packaging talent, developing form…
