Hey friends! You might notice this newsletter has gotten a little glow up since the last issue. I’m working on creating more of.a structured format so you know what to consistently look for. Would love to hear your thoughts on what you like (or things you’re not of a fan of) as well as any types of content you’d like to see in the future.

Here’s what we’ll get into today

PSA: Creator Diaries is now on Instagram. I’m forcing myself to do more short-form video there. Give us a follow if you want to follow along 💫

This week, Salary Transparent Street announced they’ve been acqui-hired by NowThis, meaning that NowThis acquired the brand and brought the founders on to keep building it from the inside.

Salary Transparent Street started as a single TikTok account built around a clear mission to make conversations about pay public (we’re all nosy at the end of the day!) Over time, it turned into something much bigger — a multi-platform media brand with a newsletter, millions of followers, a job board, and 7 figures in revenue, all built by a two-person team.

I’m fascinated by this for a few reasons. First, they’ve intentionally built more like a sophisticated media business (more on this here!) and not as traditional social media accounts. They built around this crystal clear mission and found ways to monetize that audience and the trust they’ve built with readers.

And in pure Salary Transparent Street fashion, they outlined the $$ details of the deal in their latest newsletter.

Read the full story.

I think this is something we’re going to see much more of in 2026, as brands continue to realize how valuable creators and their audiences are.

We’ve already seen versions of this with Steven Bartlett investing in HSR, and I expect more deals that look like this. If you’re wanting to follow this path, I think the first thing you should think about is what can you create that only YOU can offer and how can you carve out a niche (bc niche media businesses are in!).

And from there, don’t focus on just growing on Youtube or LinkedIn or TikTok, but be more intentional about A) building an email list and B) creating assets. Those are the pieces that turn a creator into a business, and a business into something others want to partner with or acquire.

After nearly 8 weeks of working on this report for beehiiv and 10,000+ words later I'm so excited to share it in the world!

The data is clear: email is the most resilient channel you can build on as a creator, brand, media company, and anything in between. Full stop.

One of the fundamental shifts we saw last year is that newsletters stopped being just newsletters. They became media companies, community hubs, holding companies, and entrepreneurial launchpads.

Some key highlights ✨

If you’re working with newsletters in any capacity, you’ll find a ton of value here. See the full report.

FYI, if you’re like THIS is the year I’m going to finally launch and invest in my newsletter, I’d love to help! You can book a consult call with me here. And try out beehiiv for 20% off for three months here.

This was one of the most challenging and fulfilling projects I’ve been able to work on. I learned a TON. It’s so exciting to learn about the newsletter industry from such a close POV and study the people and businesses that are working on such exciting things.

Did you recently see an ad for beehiiv in a newsletter? We’re running a short brand lift survey to understand what’s actually breaking through (and what’s not).

It takes about 20 seconds, the questions are super easy, and your feedback directly helps us improve how we show up in the newsletters you read and love.

If you’ve got a few moments, we’d really appreciate your insight.

Take the survey.

As I wrote about in the last issue, I’m pumped to start joining more events across the creator economy in 2026. One of those being the New Media Summit in Austin on Feb 26-27. The lineup looks incredible — including people like Codie Sanchez, Sam Parr, and Alexis Grant — and will explore what it looks like to build a modern media business.

The gave me a discount code TAYLOR20 you can use for 20% off - prices go up on Saturday, so I recommend grabbing a ticket while you can. See you there!

FYI if you’re in Austin and would be down to grab a coffee (or breakfast taco) while I’m in town, I’d love to meet!

At the beginning of the year, I always take stock of my tech stack (✂ & cut the things I no longer need)

Here are the top 10 tools I couldn't live without 👇

P.S. I have affiliate codes for many of these. DM me if you want to try any of them out! Or if you have any questions about any certain tool, I’d be happy to help.