Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Watcher Entertainment lays off team, JacksGap is back + TikTok user's $319K+ for waitress to retire

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MINI SCROLL: Watcher Entertainment lays off team, JacksGap is back + TikTok user's $319K+ for waitress to retire · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
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  daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
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  from social media, the creator economy and the digital space
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  every Monday through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll everyone, Happy April Fool's
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  Day. I'm not really like an April
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  Fool's day girly, so I promise I'm not going to give you guys
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  anything that makes you question if it's real or not.
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  I'm not going to prank you guys, but I cannot believe it's April.
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  I was actually trying to see. I think the first ever mini
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  scroll was April 4th last year I think.
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  Wait, no, it was April 2nd because on April first it was
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  Easter. Oh my God, that's crazy.
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  So yeah, tomorrow, which is obviously Annabelle Day.
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  So crazy. It's been 1 full year of Mini
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  Scroll, so thank you guys so much to everyone that has tuned
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  in this year. I know that Mini Scroll has
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  helped our podcast and our brand or audience in general just grow
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  so much and I'm so excited to keep bringing you guys another
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  year and maybe another year and maybe another year after that.
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  But no, I'm honestly so grateful for everyone that listens to
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  Mini Scroll everyday. I love that we can be part of
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  like your daily routine. I know how important that is for
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  content based businesses and honest actually it has made a
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  world of difference to our brand.
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  So we love Mini Scroll and I'm glad you guys love Mini Scroll
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  too. All right, the first right that
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  I have for you guys today is that Watcher, Speaking of
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  content based businesses, has unfortunately laid off its
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  entire creative team shortly after the streaming platform
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  controversy of last year. So Watcher Entertainment has
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  been going through a tough time it seems these past 12 months.
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  The popular channel, which was started by three X BuzzFeed
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  employees Stephen, Shane and Ryan, launched in 2020, January
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  2020 and is known for producing really high quality scripted
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  content. In April of last year, watch
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  your face backlash when they announced that they'd be putting
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  their content on a pay for streaming platform instead of
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  YouTube because the cost of production and keeping such a
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  big team afloat was getting really expensive.
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  The price was going to be 599 a month and people were basically
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  saying like that's the price of Netflix and like think of how
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  much you get from Netflix. So it doesn't really make sense
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  to be paying for this like dedicated streaming platform for
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  just watcher content. I don't necessarily agree with
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  that because I don't really know how that's any different than
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  like a Patreon. However, they also had Patreon,
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  which made people really mad because they had a Patreon when
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  they announced this that you could pay $5.10 dollars or
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  $25.00 a month. They ended up deleting that
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  video and backtracking a bit. Now they do put content on
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  YouTube still and I think I think the way it works is you
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  get all of their content early on this streaming platform and
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  then they publish it on YouTube later.
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  And you also of course get like exclusive content.
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  But it seems like Watchers strategy was for a good reason
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  because just a year later now they have basically laid off
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  their entire creative team it seems.
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  So this comes from Katie LeBlanc, who was chief creative
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  officer at Watcher on LinkedIn. She wrote.
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  It's with great difficulty that I have to share that my time at
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  Watcher Entertainment has come to an end.
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  On Friday, the company announced that due to financial strain,
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  they would be laying off the entire creative and production
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  team. I will deeply miss the brilliant
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  team I had the privilege of working with, the warm and
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  supportive fans, many of whom I was lucky enough to connect with
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  personally, and the work that brought me so much joy.
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  That is, I don't I don't know how they move forward without a
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  creative and production team. And this is just so sad.
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  Like despite the mistakes along the way and despite kind of how
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  you feel about Watcher and how they've handled this situation.
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  And I do know like after the streaming platform controversy,
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  their views didn't really recover on YouTube.
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  But I really empathize with struggling to grow and maintain
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  a content based business. It is so hard because you need
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  so much manpower at the start to create enough content, enough
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  high quality content to grow an audience that then advertisers
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  want to spend with or even just the audience is willing to, you
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  know, spend with you a bit. But you need money to be able to
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  hire the team to produce that content, to make you the money.
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  So it's like this endless cycle of growth equals more money for
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  more people, but you need people to make that growth happen.
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  How do you get that without money?
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  You know, they obviously saw the writing on the wall a year ago
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  by telling us this time last year that, you know, their
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  checks and balances weren't leveling out and laying off
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  their whole team basically seems to be the result of that.
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  That being said, a lot of fans have criticized kind of the
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  choices that Watcher has made in the sense of like, I guess the
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  content they were making in their BuzzFeed days altogether
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  was very like low production quality in the scheme of things.
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  So people are kind of like, can you not scale back the creative,
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  you know, the production quality, whatever until you have
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  enough money to sustain it And to do these like really high
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  quality scripted things. Again, it's kind of like chicken
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  or the egg. But we see the same thing with
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  even like mainstream media. Like we talk all the time.
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  I don't know if you guys listen to other podcasts that are
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  scripted, but like when you listen to a scripted podcast
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  from a big network at the end, they will, I'm not kidding, lot
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  list like 30 people that helped with that episode.
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  And you know, at the end of our scripted episodes, not saying
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  ours are as good, but like when you listen to our deep dives,
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  like we have three people listed at the end.
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  Same with broadcast journalism, like the segments and the news
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  and everything that they're putting together, like media is
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  struggling because the teams are so bloated because content based
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  businesses do require so much manpower.
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  But when you have to be scrappy, you can be.
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  And I think that maybe was the problem with them from the very
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  beginning is they obviously had some money to invest in this.
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  They got an audience really quickly.
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  So they scaled really fast. And like now they just can't
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  sustain that. But at any given time, like
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  Centennial, we're functioning off a budget of like $5 and we
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  make it work. No, I actually feel really like,
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  I feel so sad for them. I can't even imagine, like the
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  turmoil that they must be under that they must be feeling.
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  Same with obviously the team that just got laid off.
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  Like in general, it's just such a horrible situation.
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  And the reality is like, content for years, decades, decades was
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  paid for. Like people paid for content.
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  But now there is just an endless stream of free content at all
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  times that, you know, the audience expectation is not to
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  pay for content and the cost of living crisis, like who can
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  afford to pay for like 100 different like Patreons or
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  streaming services. So we're just kind of like in
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  this really weird place right now with like media and content
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  creation and the expectations of the audiences, the expectations
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  of the advertisers and the expectations or the needs, I
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  suppose, of the publishers and creators.
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  All right, the next story that I have for you guys is that Jack's
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  Gap is to release a film on the impact of virality.
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  So for anyone who remembers Jack's Gap, this will be very
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  nostalgic for you. But they were an OG era YouTube
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  channel by twins Jack and Finn. The channel was started by Jack
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  to document his gap year in 2011.
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  And the channel got so popular that a year later, it was fun.
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  His travels full time and travel ended up being a huge focus of
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  his channel. And then Finn joins Jack on the
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  channel around the same time. And Jack ended up going to
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  university after his gap year, but then he dropped out in 2013
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  to focus on his channel. However, after building this
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  massive following for several years of millions of
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  subscribers, the Instagram and Twitter accounts for Jack's Gap
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  were abruptly deleted in 2017, and the brand was dissolved
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  shortly after. Jack did continue to post on his
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  channel related to like, climate change and environmentalism here
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  and there, like interviews and things like that with different
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  experts. But over the weekend, he
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  released a trailer for a film that will cover what happened to
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  Jack's Gap and the impact of virality on his mental health.
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  Jack and Finn have become Internet sensations.
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  There's a part of me that feels guilty, to be honest.
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  For Finn, I have no idea what we're doing.
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  I don't like go out on stage. It wasn't what he ever set out
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  to do. All right, good luck.
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  So the trailer's only a minute and 30, but it looks so good.
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  We don't have a lot of like high quality, kind of like
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  investigative pieces into early Internet fame and what that does
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  to those creators. Like obviously there are a lot
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  of creators who have spoken out, but not with a lot of like
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  journalistic flair behind it. I don't want to say integrity
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  because these creators obviously still have integrity no matter
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  how they're sharing their story, but you know what I mean?
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  In a more like in depth way. So I'm really excited to watch
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  this. I think we're going to get more
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  and more of this. There are so many like OG
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  channels and creators that have just fallen off the face of the
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  earth and I'm really interested to know why, Like how you can
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  walk away from a career that is essentially booming and you're
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  like a pioneer of that career. So I'm really interested for
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  this. I don't know when it's coming.
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  It says coming soon, so we'll see.
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  I'm definitely going to watch it.
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  I'll let you guys know when it's out.
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  OK? And the last story that I have
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  for you guys, this is a really sweet human interest story that
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  I thought we could end on. So a woman has raised hundreds
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  of thousands of dollars on TikTok to help an 81 year old
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  waitress retire. This is really sweet.
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  So last week, a woman named Tammy went out for dinner with
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  her son where they were served by an 81 year old waitress named
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  Betty. So Tammy took to TikTok to make
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  a call to help Betty retire. She said if I could have any
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  video go viral, I hope it's this one.
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  Our server is probably in her 70s and she can hardly walk.
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  She is 81. We heard her tell the next table
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  to us that she's working because she only makes $900 a month on
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  Social Security and she has to still work because her bills
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  exceed that. So the video did go viral.
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  It racked up millions of views. Tammy made a GoFundMe and so far
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  they have raised over $318,000 for Betty and her retirement.
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  Now the most recent update is that Tammy and the manager of
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  Betty's restaurant are coming up with a plan to surprise Betty
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  with the money and a video for TikTok.
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  Sorry, I don't know. I haven't seen that it's been
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  posted because I wrote this outline a little while ago.
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  But as far as I know, she has not been given the money yet.
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  And this is really sweet. People are like really excited
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  to see, you know, if if they're allowed to film it for TikTok,
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  obviously with Betty's consent, like how this goes and to see
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  her reaction and all of that stuff.
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  And I wanted to quickly touch on how this is different than the
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  kind of like charity porn that we see that goes viral so often,
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  especially from creators like Mr. Beast.
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  Because for this, people are really excited to see this.
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  Whereas like obviously there's always a lot of criticism around
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  Mister Beast or other creators that do similar things.
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  The difference here is that Mister Beast specifically does
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  these things for virality, like to create content and make money
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  off of, you know, doing good work, quote UN quote, like doing
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  charity work. He's doing it for like the clout
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  and the money. Whereas Tammy, like she just
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  went on TikTok and was like, I really hope this goes viral
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  because I want to help this woman out like from the bottom
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  of my heart. And like, this is the resource
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  that I'm using to do that is like posting this on TikTok.
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  Like, she was hoping her video went viral so she could help
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  this woman. She was not using helping this
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  woman as a means to go viral. And that's the difference there.
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  Anyways, that's it for today. You guys.
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  Thank you so much for listening. Annabelle will talk to you
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  tomorrow. And I am going to be in
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  Melbourne on Thursday doing another speaking engagement,
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  another keynote speech. So I will not be doing mini
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  scroll on Thursday, but there will be high stakes that's
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  posted on Thursday, of course. And then there will be a deep
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  dive on Friday. OK.
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  I love you guys. Bye.