TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday, and YouTube is testing a way to get creators paid faster. As part of that experiment, some Partner Program members can now cash out their AdSense accounts after earning just $20—instead of the previous $100 threshold.

MONEY MOVES

The good news: YouTube is on a roll. During Q3 2026, the platform clocked $11.2 billion in ad revenue—a 9% year-over-year rise—and reached a record high of 150 million Premium and Music subscribers.

According to Alphabet CBO Philipp Schindler, living room TV viewership now accounts for a meaty one-third of YouTube’s total ad revenues. The exec pointed to deeper brand partnerships between Google and advertisers as the “largest contribution” to ad growth, and gave a nod to YouTube Shopping’s partnership with Amazon.

Schindler also brought up YouTube Premium subscriptions, hinting that the lower-cost Lite tier has played a role in pushing subscriptions to their current high.

The bad news: Other parts of Alphabet’s business aren’t faring so well. The company’s stock sank 10% after it missed Q3 expectations by posting $127.6 billion in revenue (compared to analysts’ expected $128.2 billion) and reporting negative cash flow for the second quarter in a row (this time to the tune of -$9.07 billion).

Alphabet’s Q2 earnings cast a similar pall, with the company posting negative cash flow for the very first time since Google went public in 2004. Analysts expected improvements in Q3, but instead, cash burn worsened—and things are only going to get worse.

Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi told investors that the company “continue[s] to expect our CapEx to increase significantly in 2027” as it pays for everything associated with AI, including R&D and building out more cloud computing capacity.

Every year, Extreme Reach processes over $1.5 billion in ad talent payments through its XR Pay platform. 

Now, after serving SAG-AFTRA members for nearly two decades, Extreme Reach is entering the creator economy with a new platform—and solving one of the industry’s biggest challenges.

As the company explains, “Creator advertising spending in the U.S. exceeded $37 billion in 2025,” but “the financial systems behind that growth haven’t kept pace.” As a result, brands and agencies often pay creators through consumer apps like Venmo, bypassing accounts payable processes, proper onboarding, and tax documentation.

XR Pay for Creators closes that gap.

The platform centralizes entire partnerships in one streamlined destination, allowing brands, agencies, and creators to:

From single-post deals to "multi-million-dollar union guarantees," XR Pay for Creators handles payments of all sizes from contract to payout. 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

SPOOKY SEASON

The horror wave: For horror creators on YouTube, a lot has changed between last October and the present. Creator filmmakers have become hot commodities in Hollywood, and that trend has been focused almost exclusively on the horror genre.

Kane Parsons’ Backrooms and Curry Barker’s Obsession were two of the biggest sleeper hits of Hollywood’s summer season, and Markiplier brought his project Iron Lung to theaters as well.

The success of those films and the approach of Halloween have only intensified Hollywood’s interest in horror creators. One of the scary movies opening this week is Breeder, which is directed by YouTuber Alex Goyette (aka JouleThief). Blumhouse’s Atomic Monster has also joined forces with horror queen Heidi Wong, who will use the partnership to write and develop short films.

The YouTube short film: Some of the horror creators who make it to the big screen limit their activity on YouTube. The RackaRacka channel, for example, has been very quiet since the brothers who ran it turned their feature Talk To Me into a frightening, A24-backed success story.

At least one of this year’s breakout horror maestros, however, is keeping one foot firmly on YouTube. Barker has dusted off his channel to premiere Mama Bear, a chilling short film that premieres on the platform today.

Barker is still a hot commodity in Hollywood, but his distribution strategy for Mama Bear is a reminder that creators think differently from a lot of the film directors who came before them. By ensuring that no box office activity is required to see his short film, Barker is retaining his autonomy as a filmmaker and giving his fans what they want at the same time.

PLATFORM UPDATES

The update: Reddit is updating its homepage to give users a choice between two feeds. The default option will be a For You feed that shows content from a wide selection of the platform’s 138,000 active subreddits. Redditors who prefer a more customized experience can switch to the Following feed, which shows posts from subreddits they already follow.

These days, every platform seems to be adopting layouts centered around infinitely scrolling vertical videos. Reddit’s For You feed certainly apes TikTok’s signature format—but that pivot isn’t exactly new. Redditors have seen posts from subreddits they don’t follow for years, and the platform has already rejiggered its video format to look more like TikToks.

So, what is new about the introduction of Reddit’s For You and Following feeds?

Essentially, Reddit’s updated homepage design splits its two most endearing qualities into separate feeds. If you visit the platform to discover new ideas, For You will feed your curiosity. If, however, you put more stock in the community-focused aspects of the Reddit experience, the Following feed will preserve those connections.

The context: By letting its users choose between discovery or community, Reddit is reflecting the deeper fault lines that have created friction between its execs and its subreddit administrators.

In 2023, thousands of subreddits went offline as part of a coordinated blackout that protested planned changes to Reddit’s API pricing and third-party support. Three years later, most of those subreddits are back in business, but Reddit is moving forward with plans to limit API access and disconnect RSS readers.

Amid that landscape, the new homepage feels like a compromise. As Reddit evolves to compete with other social media platforms, it’s keeping its original spirit alive on the Following feed. The changes are expected to roll out to all users over the coming weeks.

WATCH THIS 👀

The question: So, Haley Bayley is breaking it down. In a recent Short, the multiplatform creator answers a question that inevitably appears over and over again on social media after award shows: “Why was [insert influencer’s name here] even there?”

To address those kinds of comments, Haley Bayley walks viewers through the ways in which award shows publicized their events before social media—namely, by dedicating significant resources and red carpet space to traditional networks like E! News and Fox.

As she points out, that’s no longer the reality. These days, award shows “don’t need a giant big corporation to set up a giant tent on a red carpet in order to get coverage.” Instead, event organizers can invite creators, who bring their own filming equipment and lighting, require little setup space and few tickets, and provide coverage in exchange for access.

Haley Bayley’s advice to any viewers still confused at seeing creators on the red carpet: “Just think of me as another E! News on the red carpet, except I have a much, much, much, much, much smaller operation.”

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.