{"id":434,"date":"2025-09-30T15:46:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/?p=434"},"modified":"2025-09-30T20:44:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T20:44:53","slug":"david-v-goliath-version-4000001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/david-v-goliath-version-4000001\/","title":{"rendered":"David v. Goliath version 4,000,001"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chris Cillizza, Youtuber and Substack scribe, just penned a good essay about the grit and determination required of independent creators.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The idea that independent journalism is an immediate financial windfall is deeply misguided,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/chriscillizza.substack.com\/p\/the-one-thing-every-journalist-needs\">writes Cillizza<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cillizza, formerly of Wapo and MSNBC, started with the misconception among mainstream journalists that the grass (and cash) are greener on the other side of the fence: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The assumption by mainstream media types is that going independent means you just start bathing in gold doubloons. Or just head out to the backyard to pick cash off the money tree planted in your backyard. Pick your money-making metaphor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You get the idea. When mainstream media reporters think of the world of independent journalism, they tend to think they are going to get rich. And quick.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Journalists extrapolate from the fire hose of attention their work gets when published on a big site and assume they&#8217;ll wrack up similar page views. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you come from a massive media brand where your articles or videos are getting tens or even hundreds of thousands of views consistently, it seems like the math should be pretty easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just get 5,000 people to pay $5 a month for a Substack and you are at $250,000. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Except, well, not.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It turns out that with the fire hose of MSM turned off, an independent journalist needs to create hundreds of individual relationships with readers&#8230; and that&#8217;s a LOT of work and time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Cillizza, the key is grit and determination and persistence. Just keep grinding out the content. &#8220;Building up a library of content that people who wander into your site can browse to get a sense of you and eventually \u2014 we hope \u2014 subscribe,&#8221; says Cillizza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more context, here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/simonowens.substack.com\/p\/is-there-life-after-cnn-chris-cillizza\">Simon Owen&#8217;s wrap-up of Cillizza&#8217;s journey<\/a> arcing through Roll Call, Wapo, MSNBC and finally CNN, from which he was abruptly laid off in late 2022. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Cillizza, Youtuber and Substack scribe, just penned a good essay about the grit and determination required of independent creators. &#8220;The idea that independent journalism is an immediate financial windfall is deeply misguided,&#8221; writes Cillizza. Cillizza, formerly of Wapo and MSNBC, started with the misconception among mainstream journalists that the grass (and cash) are greener [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-original-content","category-soloscribes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441,"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions\/441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quizlab.ai\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}