It’s Tuesday, and just a few months after relaunching InfoWars, The Onion is moving into new territory. Its first video game: a satirical (and NSFW) voting simulator.

TUBE TALK

The report: A report from Syracuse University’s Center for the Creator Economy will make traditional news outlets quake in their boots. In its first-ever Industry Flash Report, Syracuse surveyed 1,001 Americans and found that YouTube is relied on most often as a primary news source.

Alongside research partner Prolific, Syracuse asked U.S.-based respondents to name the news source they use the most. YouTube topped that list with a 16.5% share, while TV news came in second at 16.1% and print/online media ranked third at 15.7%.

Overall, 60% of viewers surveyed by Syracuse said they turned to a social media platform first when they look to get informed. X and Facebook trailed YouTube but pulled ahead of TikTok, which was cited by only 10.4% of respondents as their most frequent source for headlines. Podcasts, newsletters, and LinkedIn brought up the rear.

The context: One could argue that YouTube’s growth as a news source reflects its broader ascendance. After all, it has become the most dominant streaming service on TV screens, and much of the news it delivers comes from traditional outlets.

Studies have shown, however, that the consumers who get their news from social media are more likely to seek out creator-broadcasters than traditional journalists. Syracuse’s report supports that idea, with 61% of respondents saying they trust independent news creators as much as network broadcasters. Two-thirds of the sample also said that reporting ability is a more important qualification than journalism credentials.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Syracuse—which offers one of the first degree programs dedicated to creator content—is incentivized to publish statistics that favor independent news creators. Even with that caveat, however, the Flash Report represents strong evidence of YouTube’s rising popularity among news consumers.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

MOVERS & SHAKERS

The new hire: Sony Pictures Entertainment is bringing the business side of YouTube to Hollywood. The mass media company has announced the hiring of former YouTube Head of Film and TV Partnerships Fede Goldenberg.

After a 15-year stint at YouTube, Goldenberg will serve as the head of Sony’s Screen Gems, a production and distribution label that delivers many mid-budget horror flicks.

An entity called “Screen Gems” has existed for nearly a century. The name was originally tied to the animation arm of Columbia Pictures, before being applied to the unit now known as Sony Pictures Television. In contemporary times, Screen Gems is known for its emphasis on genre films and has deep roots in horror, producing installments for hit franchises like Insidious and Resident Evil.

The context: The label’s biggest gamble on creator content came in 2018, when it cooked up a feature adaptation of the Slender Man lore that went viral through internet creepypastas.

While the film itself was a flop, Sony’s take on Slender Man showed that creepypastas could spin gold at the box office—a strategy that would later pay off for A24 thanks to Kane Parsons’ Backrooms. The biggest YouTuber success stories in Hollywood have since come within the horror genre, and more are on the way.

Now that creators have gotten so hot in the movie biz, Sony is ready to jump back in. By hiring Goldenberg, the studio is bringing in an exec who championed theatrical events led by creators like Inoxtag and helped Markiplier release his film Iron Lung on YouTube.

In a statement, Sony confirmed that it will “expand its longstanding focus on traditional genre films to include theatrical projects from the next generation of digital-native storytellers.”

WEEKLY ROUNDUP

The roundup: Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of the trends, updates, and business moves defining the creator industry. This time around, a streaming star is teaming up with Chipotle, an NFL legend is getting deeper into Minecraft, and YouTube is running yet another experiment.

The menu item: Keith Lee and Salish Matter need to make some room in the burrito queue, because another creator is turning her signature order into a Chipotle menu item. The Pokimane Pollo Asado and Steak Bowl is launching alongside the return of the chain’s pollo asado.

The collab: Sam and Colby are celebrating Hell Week with a Uscreen partnership. The haunted house explorers are relaunching their XPLR Club, which offers a more “cinematic viewing experience” for longtime fans.

The experiment: On the desktop versions of TikTok and Instagram, comments appear to the right of videos. Now, a new YouTube experiment shows that Google’s video platform is testing out right-aligned desktop comments for itself.

The coach-turned-creator: Last week, we discussed Mike Tomlin’s long-running adventures in Minecraft’s creative mode. Now, the former Pittsburgh Steelers coach has decided to present more of the in-game city that has attracted so much love from fans. That project takes center stage in the first videos to arrive on Tomlin’s new YouTube channel.

The reunion: Rooster Teeth vets Burnie Burns and Matt Hullum are reuniting for Bad Toys, a Yuletide horror-comedy that, according to its logline, will draw inspiration from “medieval Christmas elf folklore.” Not exactly Red vs. Blue, but we’ll take it.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

The episode: On the latest installment of Creator Upload, hosts Joshua Cohen and Lauren Schnipper break down Dhar Mann’s massive $100 million pledge to bridge the gap between creators and brands—and the announcement of his upcoming “Creator City” campus.

Tune into the full episode to discover more about the ambitions of “YouTube’s moral philosopher” and find out why the platform’s new “Channel Search” experiment is stirring up controversy.

It’s all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.​

Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter’s audience? Sponsor the newsletter.

Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.