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Today’s News

TIKTOK TALK

TikTok wants to hire a manager for its news creators

The job listing: TikTok is seeking an L.A.-based “Creator Manager” to work alongside news broadcasters who are active on its platform. While the job listing for that role initially describes a typical creator management post, additional details reveal that TikTok wants the selected employee to work directly with its news community.

The platform has good reason to prioritize that content category. According to a 2023 report, 20% of 18-to-24-year-olds use TikTok as a news source—and that percentage is increasing quickly as more creators embed themselves within the contemporary political landscape.

That trend holds true across the internet. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey, for instance, noted that news consumption on social media is still rising, with creators drawing most of that attention.

The context: Viewers’ preference for creator-delivered news leaves TikTok in a tricky position. Compared to independent pundits like V Spehar, legacy media organizations only draw a fraction of the TikTok views—but news disseminated via social media can be dangerous, as it is more prone to misinformation and extremist viewpoints. If TikTok sits on its hands, however, other platforms like Substack will rush in to court news creators.

That’s where the Creator Manager role comes into play. By working directly with news creators, TikTok can address misinformation while simultaneously combatting political threats like the proposed U.S. ban (and encouraging more views in the process).

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• MrBeast got three million new subs during the last week of June—and his hub is only one of 13 U.S.-based channels represented in the latest ranking of Top 50 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Instagram users will now be able to listen to previews of Spotify songs that are shared via Stories. (TechCrunch)
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• After reportedly poaching experts from OpenAI and other rivals, Meta has unveiled the “Meta Superintelligence Labs” team that will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. (The Verge)
  
  

• Over 500,000 listeners have tuned into what appears to be an AI band on Spotify. Is this a window into the future of music streaming? (Ars Technica)

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top Branded Videos: Last week’s wildcard is this week’s #3 winner

Last week, a sponsored clip from The Ramsey Show’s highlights hub clocked in at #1,947 on Gospel Stats’ weekly ranking of top-viewed branded YouTube videos. This time around, the show’s host has jumped to a spot at #3 in Gospel’s Brand Report—just below repeat chart-toppers MrBeast and Sam and Colby.

🥇 #1. MrBeast x Shopify: Lose 100 LBs, Win $250,000! (148.4M views)
It’s not unusual for MrBeast to top the YouTube rankings with a Shopify-sponsored clip—but it is unusual for one of those videos to take 200 days to film. The challenge in question followed Majd, a friend of MrBeast who was tasked with losing 100 pounds in 365 days while living on set with a gym and an unlimited pantry of fresh food.

🥈 #2. Sam and Colby x BetterHelp: The Night a Poltergeist Attacked Her (ft. Ha Sisters) (6.5M views)
Sam and Colby’s most recent creator collab was backed by one of YouTube’s biggest sponsors. Online therapy company BetterHelp paid for over 50 videos during the third week of June—and you might find yourself signing up for a session after watching the Ha Sisters follow Sam and Colby through the (allegedly haunted) White Hill Mansion.

🎰 #3. The Ramsey Show Highlights x Christian Healthcare Ministry: He’s 23 and His Dad Left Him With A Mess (5.9M views)
Last week, we noticed that The Ramsey Show Highlights—a channel that posts mid-length clips from Dave Ramsey’s daily show—was uploading dozens of sponsored videos each week. The clips were generating some decent views (in the ~40K range), but the real prize was likely all the sponsorship dough that made their production possible. This time around, one of the show’s sponsors, Christian Healthcare Ministry, got a handsome return on that investment in the form of nearly 6 million views.

Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

TOP 50 MOST-VIEWED 🌎

Summer is the time to reach kids on YouTube. Indie brands show us how it’s done.

The trend: With schools out for summer, popular entertainment entities like Toys and Colors and Pinkfong have their sights set on YouTube’s massive audience of preschool-age viewers. Those chart-topping companies can (and do) apply all sorts of data in their quest to capture the attention of Gen Alpha and Beta—but at the end of the day, all of the metrics in the world can’t outweigh the value of a Shorts-centric approach.

This week’s global ranking of top 50 most-viewed YouTube channels offers a clear example of how vital short-form video has become for brands looking to reach young viewers.

The channel: Take MEOWJI: with so many edutainment hubs offering similar content, the colorful U.S.-based channel doesn’t usually register in YouTube’s global rankings. It is one of hundreds—if not thousands—of seemingly interchangeable channels that combine vibrant props and costumes with simple life lessons that transcend cultural and regional lines.

But despite the apparent homogeneity of that highly-congested genre, MEOWJI managed to increase its traffic by 40% week-over-week, collecting 493 million weekly views and moving from 93rd place in our ranking up to 33rd.

So, how did the channel pull it off? Despite the ongoing debate about YouTube’s ability to foster the success of high-quality educational content, MEOWJI seems to be thriving specifically because it invests in desired learning outcomes. Its most-viewed Shorts range from parables about the danger of dirty hands to honest-to-god anatomy lessons for curious kids.

The takeaway: brainrot isn’t always the way to appeal to younger generations—especially when they’re young enough to need parental sign-off for purchases.

WATCH THIS

Netflix’s fictional K-pop groups are killing it on the music charts

The soundtrack: Huntrix and the Saja Boyz might not be real K-pop bands, but that hasn’t stopped them from sending sound waves through the internet. Between viral lyric videos and Billboard-charting songs, the animated stars of Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters film are taking YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify by storm.

As Resonate noted, tracks from the film “became the highest charting K-pop songs on the Global Spotify chart” last week. The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack also rose to become “the highest debuting soundtrack of 2025 on the Billboard 200 chart” and “No. 1 on the Soundtracks chart”—making it “the first soundtrack from a Netflix show to reach No. 1 in over two years” (per Billboard).

Check out Sony Pictures Animation’s official YouTube channel here to watch the movie’s viral lyric videos. Our favorite (and that of 12 million other viewers): “Golden.”

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