It’s Friday, and a recent Instagram glitch caused the platform to over-recommend Creed’s song “Higher.” But don’t worry: according to a spokesperson, “the Soulja Boy song being recommended is not a bug, and it is actually popular on IG!”

CREATOR COMMOTION

The Chief Creator Officer: Dhar Mann made some hefty promises at this year’s Advertising Week New York. As the event’s first “Chief Creator Officer” (and its keynote speaker), he pledged to liaise between brands and creators in hopes of brokering $100 million worth of sponsorship deals by the end of AWNY.

Mann said that despite growing mainstream interest in the creator industry, there is still a disconnect between CMOs and creators. His plan is to link both sides by using hard numbers to show CMOs what creators can offer, and by mentoring creators who might find themselves pitching in brands’ boardrooms for the first time.

According to Digiday, Mann (who makes his living publishing parable videos as YouTube’s “moral philosopher”) claims to have already reached his $100 million goal thanks to pledges from CMOs. As of now, however, the entrepreneur-slash-producer hasn’t named names, and none of the pledges are inked as official deals.

On top of personally holding conversations with brands and creators at AWNY, Mann opened a challenge that rewarded creators who completed seven tasks with a golden Zillow key and ran The Masked CMO, a Masked Singer parody hosted by Nick Cannon.

The creator campus: While AWNY 2026 has come to a close, Mann plans to extend his creator mentorship far beyond the event. During his keynote, he announced “Creator City,” his new Los Angeles-based, four-acre production campus.

Creator City offers five soundstages and resources for producing videos, podcasts, live events, and collaborative creator projects. The campus will open during Super Bowl weekend in February 2027 (likely because Mann is also the NFL’s “Chief Kindness Officer”).

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

TUBE TALK

The experiment: At its annual Made On presentation, YouTube announced several tools that help brands forge partnerships with creators. Now, a related feature has been spotted in the wild.

On X, creator growth platform VidIQ shared a screenshot of a YouTube Studio tab described as a “creator discovery” hub. The page shows analytics from the channels of other creators, including the product reviewer Sambucha.

According to VidIQ’s tweet, the feature allows users to “search certain channels and see their backend data: unique viewers, watch time, audience age and gender, top countries.” The company added that YouTube has dubbed the feature Channel Search.

The confirmation: In a statement shared with Tubefilter, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed that the platform conducted an experiment that brought creator data directly into YouTube Studio for “a small number of brand channels.”

The analytics in question were limited to public information already available through the Creator Partnerships Hub and participating creators opted into the data-sharing agreement.

Some observers have questioned whether Channel Search could evolve into a tool that lets creators compare their stats against those of their colleagues.

According to the YouTube spokesperson, however, the experiment “strictly targets brand channels only.” (In one case, a non-brand entity was given access to Channel Search, but YouTube rolled back the experiment after discovering its error.)

THE BIZ

The series: Two weeks after being announced as OpenAI’s new head of Creator Product, Sam Yam is already hard at work. The Patreon co-founder’s team has announced a partnership with Chloe Shih, who will use OpenAI tech to produce a parenting series.

Shih gained a significant social media following by uploading videos about her life in the tech industry before launching Office Drama, a podcast that features conversations with business leaders and anonymized bits of workplace gossip.

In tandem with OpenAI, Shih—who is currently pregnant with her first child—will explore the role technology can play in parenting and early childhood education.

The context: As OpenAI dips its toes into creator content, it seems to be taking a different approach than platforms like YouTube and TikTok. While those companies cast a wide net when producing original content, the maker of ChatGPT is focusing on Silicon Valley discourse.

Its acquisition of TBPN turned a notable news podcast into an official OpenAI mouthpiece, and Shih will now explore other applications for OpenAI products within the broader tech industry.

Some of those products—including Dots—will help Shih produce her series. She will be an early user of the agentic AI assistant, which was unveiled at OpenAI’s recent DevDay event.

Yam had previously said that DevDay would bring announcements regarding his new role, and he followed through on that promise. His partnership with Shih shows us the direction OpenAI will take as it interacts with creators—but for now, release details about the Office Drama host’s new project are being kept under wraps.

WATCH THIS 👀

The 2025 contest: Last year, Canon’s inaugural First Cut Contest called on creators and filmmakers to submit video pitches for projects they would make if they had proper production support and funding.

Winners Braxton Haugen, Jazzy Hawley, Zahra Hussain, and Josiah Selvig each took home $25,000 by impressing Canon and pro creator judges Colin & Samir, Josh Richards, Michelle Khare, and Rory Kramer.

Hussain, for example, submitted Static Interference, a VFX showcase short film in which a woman is captivated by a mysterious TV she finds on the street. Check it out here.

The 2026 edition: Now, First Cut is coming back—and Canon wants video makers to send in their “boldest pitch yet.”

Submissions should be one to three minutes long and will be sorted into four categories, including Cinematic Narrative (judged by Anna Sitar), Action-Adventure (judged by Zach King), Documentary (judged by Sam Newton), and Lifestyle/Vlog (judged by Eva Gutowski).

Canon will bring 12 finalists to Los Angeles for a grand premiere hosted by Remi Parsons. Each finalist will see their pitch aired on the big screen and receive an “ultimate creator kit” containing Canon’s EOS R50 V camera, an RF-S14-30mm F4-6.3 IS STM PZ lens, a DM-E100 stereo microphone, and an HG-200TBR tripod grip.

One winner from each category will get $25,000 in funding and an hourlong mentorship session with one of the judges.

Submissions opened yesterday and close Nov. 10, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET. To be considered, creators must both fill out the form here AND post their video on YouTube, TikTok, and/or Instagram. Videos should be tagged @canonusa and include the hashtag #canonfirstcutcontest.

FYI: Canon is a Tubefilter partner.

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