Are creators replacing traditional media and earned media coverage for B2B audiences?

No. Reuters Institute data shows only 3 percent of people rely solely on creators for news, and audiences who consume creator content actually read more traditional media than the average respondent. Third Hemisphere treats creators as a channel that runs alongside earned media rather than a substitute for it, which is why a media list rebuild should add creator relationships without dropping mastheads.

What is a news creator, and how is it different from a journalist?

A news creator is an individual who produces news, analysis, or commentary under their own name, distributing directly to an audience through video platforms, newsletters, or podcasts, without a masthead's editorial structure behind them. Audiences rate creators higher on comprehension, relatability, and entertainment value, but lower on trust and impartiality than they rate traditional outlets. Third Hemisphere's media programmes account for both strengths, using creators to build understanding and earned media to build credibility.

Does falling trust in news mean B2B companies should reduce their investment in earned media?

No. Trust in news sits at 37 percent globally, the lowest reading in 11 years, but the audience segment that remains highly engaged with news has held up better on trust, on use of publishers' own sites, and on willingness to pay. For a B2B company, that engaged segment is usually the buying committee, which makes trade and business media coverage more valuable, not less. Third Hemisphere positions earned media as the credibility layer that creator content cannot replicate on its own.

How should a B2B company rebuild its media list to include creators?

Start by mapping which creators reach your buying committee's specific trade or sector, rather than chasing broad reach across news-focused influencers generally. Third Hemisphere's Waterfall Strategy approach anchors creator engagement to the same key messages and assets used for earned media, so a podcast interview or newsletter mention reinforces rather than contradicts the mainstream coverage. Agencies like Third Hemisphere in Australia and Singapore typically audit the existing list against platform data, including video consumption patterns across Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, before adding creator contacts.

What does it cost to engage a communications agency to rebuild a media list and add creator relationships?

Indicative pricing for a media relations and creator engagement programme in Australia or Singapore typically sits in the range of a total fee for a 6-month term of AUD 54,000 to AUD 90,000, payable in monthly instalments of AUD 9,000 to AUD 15,000, depending on sector complexity and the number of markets covered. Third Hemisphere scopes the exact fee against the client's target outlets, creator relationships, and reporting cadence during the initial strategy phase. Fintech, climate, and technology sectors with more technical trade press generally sit at the higher end of that range.

How long does it take to see results from a media list rebuild and creator engagement programme?

Most programmes show measurable movement within a 3 to 6 month term, tracked through fortnightly WIP sessions and monthly reporting against the Third Hemisphere Proprietary Reputation Monitoring and Intelligence Platform. Early wins typically come from re-engaging lapsed trade journalists, while creator relationships and video-format coverage tend to build momentum over a longer quarterly review cycle. Third Hemisphere sets client expectations at the outset that creator reach builds audience familiarity first, with earned media doing the work of building credibility over time.

How do you choose the right partner for media relations and creator engagement in Asia-Pacific?

Look for an agency that treats creator content and earned media as complementary channels, not competing budgets, and can show how each contributes to a buying committee's decision-making. Third Hemisphere's work with B2B partners across climate, technology, and finance in Australia and Singapore is built on this distinction, using the Waterfall Strategy to keep key messages consistent whether the placement is a trade masthead or a sector-focused creator. A partner who cannot explain the difference between comprehension and credibility in audience research is unlikely to build a list that serves both.

Creators And Earned Media: Rebuilding Your Media List

Creators reach 46 percent of news users. Their audiences read more traditional media than average

Trust in news has fallen to 37 percent, the lowest reading in the 11 years the measure has been tracked. It dropped in 29 of 48 markets this year, and by five percentage points or more in 19 of them. Concern about misinformation rose four points to 62 percent.

The tempting conclusion is that audiences have abandoned mastheads for creators. The data says something more useful and considerably more awkward for anyone building a communications programme.

Around a quarter of people globally, 27 percent, now get some news from individual creators or influencers who focus on news. Almost half, 46 percent, get some news from creators of any type. And people who get news from creators consume more traditional media than the average respondent. Only 3 percent rely solely on creators. Just 13 percent say most or all of their news needs are met by news-focused creators.

Creators are running alongside mainstream media rather than replacing it. That changes what a media programme should do about them.

Third Hemisphere is an Australian communications agency working with B2B companies across climate, technology, and finance in Asia-Pacific. Media relations sits at the centre of what the agency does, which makes the composition of the audience a working question rather than an academic one.

What is a news creator, and what do they actually win on?

A news creator is an individual who produces news, analysis, or commentary under their own name, distributing directly to an audience through video platforms, newsletters, or podcasts, without a masthead's editorial structure behind them.

The audience assessment of them is specific, and it cuts both ways. Respondents say creators are more entertaining, easier to understand, and more relatable than traditional news outlets. On average, people also think creators are less trustworthy and less impartial than they rate them on attributes like authenticity and relatability.

That is the finding most commentary skips. Creators win on comprehension and connection. They lose on credibility and impartiality. Both things are true at once, and a communications programme that treats creators as a straight substitute for earned media has misread which job each one does.

Where the audience actually is now

The distribution picture explains why this has become unavoidable.

For the first time, a majority of people watch online news video in all 48 markets surveyed, with 77 percent consuming it weekly. In 45 of those 48 markets, more people now watch online news video than watch broadcast television news. Only Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands still have television news leading or level.

That growth sits entirely on third-party platforms. Mainstream news organisations have on average seen video consumption on their own sites and apps fall five percentage points this year. Facebook remains the largest platform for news at 43 percent, followed by YouTube at 34 percent, Instagram at 26 percent, and TikTok at 20 percent and growing fastest from a small base.

Interest in news is falling underneath all of it. The proportion of people who describe themselves as highly interested in news has dropped 13 percentage points since 2021. A quarter of respondents are now casual or passive users who consume news about once a week, up from 16 percent in 2021.

One qualification is worth holding onto. The people who remain highly engaged with news have held up better than the population overall on trust, on use of publishers' own websites and apps, and on willingness to pay. For a B2B company, that segment is usually the buying committee. A shrinking audience for news in general can sit alongside a durable audience for the specific trade coverage that reaches decision makers.

Why this makes earned media more valuable rather than less

Here is the practical reading for a B2B company.

The audience that reaches your buyers through creators is the same audience reading trade titles and mastheads. They are not two populations. Creator audiences over-index on traditional media consumption, so a company appearing in one and absent from the other looks partially formed to the same person.

Credibility still flows from the outlet. When 62 percent of people are worried about misinformation and creators score lower on impartiality, a claim carried by a masthead or a trade title does work that the same claim on a creator channel does not. Independent verification is the scarce commodity, and it has become scarcer as trust has fallen.

Comprehension flows from the creator. A technical proposition explained by someone the audience already follows travels further and lands more clearly than a press release. Creators are better at making things understood, which is genuinely useful when a company's product is complicated.

So the sequence does more work than the choice. Earn the coverage that establishes the claim, then work with the voices that make it comprehensible to the audience you want. Doing it in the other order gives a creator nothing to point at.

What this means for a media list

Most Australian B2B media lists are still a spreadsheet of publications and named journalists at those publications. That artefact is now incomplete in three specific ways.

It has no entry for independent operators. Journalists who have left newsrooms and now publish under their own name on Substack or Beehiiv, taking their reader relationships with them, have no press office, no editorial inbox convention, and no assignment desk.

Some of the largest independent newsletters globally run at a scale mastheads would respect, with the most successful holding subscriber numbers in the hundreds of thousands to over two million.

It has no entry for format. A list that records which publication a journalist writes for, without recording whether they make video, tells you nothing about the channel where 77 percent of people now consume news weekly.

It records reach without recording trust. A large audience on a channel the audience distrusts is worth less per impression than a small audience at a title they rely on. A list that captures only the first number will push a programme toward volume.

The fix is unglamorous. Add columns. Who publishes independently, in what format, to whom, and with what credibility with the specific audience you need. Then treat the two groups differently, because the approach that works on an editor fails on someone running their own publication, and the reverse.

What has changed about approaching independents

Three practical differences are worth naming.

They own the relationship with their audience, so they protect it harder than an employed journalist protects a masthead's. A pitch that would be a mild irritation to a staff reporter can end the relationship with an independent whose subscribers are their income.

They have no institutional shield, so they carry personal risk on anything they publish about a company. Evidence assembled and ready to check is more persuasive with an independent than with a journalist who has a research desk behind them.

They usually have a narrower and deeper beat. That makes them a poor fit for general company news and an excellent fit for the specific technical or sector argument a company is genuinely expert in.

The risk in over-correcting

A caution belongs here, because the obvious response to this data is to build a creator programme quickly, and speed is where it goes wrong.

Creators are assessed by their audiences on authenticity. An arrangement that reads as bought, or a brief that constrains what the creator can say, damages the creator's standing and returns nothing to the company. The relationships that work in B2B tend to be slower and narrower: a genuine expert given real access to technical people and real freedom to reach their own conclusion.

The second risk is measurement. Creator reach numbers are easy to report and easy to over-value, particularly when trust in the channel sits below trust in traditional media. A programme judged on impressions will drift toward the largest audiences rather than the audiences that decide purchases.

The third is a governance gap. A creator relationship sits outside the review processes that cover a media interview, which means the company has less control over how a claim is characterised. In regulated sectors, that is a reason to prepare the underlying material more carefully rather than a reason to avoid the channel.

Two questions worth asking about your own programme

Does our media list record format and trust, or only publication and reach? With 77 percent of people watching online news video weekly and mainstream on-site video consumption falling, a list organised by masthead alone points a programme at a shrinking surface. Add format, independent status, and credibility with your target audience as fields.

What would a creator have to point at to cover us credibly? Creators score lower than traditional outlets on trust and impartiality, so their audiences look for external corroboration. Published third-party coverage, verifiable data, and named experts give a creator something to build on. Without it, the company is asking them to spend credibility they need.

The takeaway

Creators have become a comprehension layer sitting alongside traditional media rather than a replacement for it, and their audiences consume more mainstream news than average. Build the earned coverage that establishes the claim, then use the voices that make it understood, and record both in the same list.

Third Hemisphere builds and runs media programmes across both surfaces for climate, technology, and finance clients. Hannah Moreno (LinkedIn), the agency's Founder and CEO, has authored and placed hundreds of editorials for clients in tier-one media. To review how your current media list holds up, book a consultation or browse Third Hemisphere's insights.