Guide
Creator media company: named formats on a fixed schedule
Updated
A creator becomes a media company when the audience can name what you make and knows when it comes out. This guide covers the three formats to start with, how often to post, interviews or solo videos, and hiring.
In short
- A creator media company runs a few named formats on a fixed schedule, instead of posting whatever feels right that week.
- Three formats are enough to start, with a short one for new viewers, a deep one for fans and a quick one for busy weeks.
- Have two weeks of finished videos ready before you announce a schedule.
- Interviews bring reach, and solo videos build your identity. If you can only run one, run solo videos.
- Hire an editor after the formats exist, and ask for a price per video before you agree to a monthly fee.
- Enough to fill a year
- 3 formats
- Every format needs: what happens, length, day and a name
- 4 parts
- Of finished videos before you announce a schedule
- 2 weeks
What turns a creator into a media company?
Named formats that come out on a schedule. The size of the audience is not the difference.
- A simple check is whether three regular viewers can name one thing you make. If they cannot, you do not have formats yet.
- A format takes more planning than posting whatever you feel like, and it is the reason something still goes out in a week when you are ill.
- Announcing a format and dropping it in week five is worse than having none.
Creator or media company
Plenty of small accounts are real businesses. Plenty of large ones are not.
What gets posted
- A creator posting freely
- Whatever felt right that week
- A creator media company
- Named formats on set days
How viewers describe you
- A creator posting freely
- By a general feeling
- A creator media company
- By the name of a format
Sponsors
- A creator posting freely
- Hard to sell
- A creator media company
- Buy a spot in a named format
A new hire
- A creator posting freely
- Cannot be taught to be you
- A creator media company
- Can be given a format to make
Two weeks off
- A creator posting freely
- The audience notices at once
- A creator media company
- Someone else can run a format
| A creator posting freely | A creator media company | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets posted | Whatever felt right that week | Named formats on set days |
| How viewers describe you | By a general feeling | By the name of a format |
| Sponsors | Hard to sell | Buy a spot in a named format |
| A new hire | Cannot be taught to be you | Can be given a format to make |
| Two weeks off | The audience notices at once | Someone else can run a format |
What does a video format need?
Four parts. Without one of them, a format is just a series of posts.
The four parts of a format
| Part | What it means | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | One sentence a stranger understands | Example: "I read one bad contract clause out loud and explain it in plain English." |
| Length | Roughly the same every time | Viewers know how long it is before they press play |
| Day and time | The same day, ideally the same time | Viewers know when to come back |
| Name | A name people can say back to you | Named things get requested, mentioned and remembered |
Part: What happens
- What it means
- One sentence a stranger understands
- Why it matters
- Example: "I read one bad contract clause out loud and explain it in plain English."
Part: Length
- What it means
- Roughly the same every time
- Why it matters
- Viewers know how long it is before they press play
Part: Day and time
- What it means
- The same day, ideally the same time
- Why it matters
- Viewers know when to come back
Part: Name
- What it means
- A name people can say back to you
- Why it matters
- Named things get requested, mentioned and remembered
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Which three formats should a creator run?
Three is enough to fill a year, and each one does a different job.
- The quick format matters most, because it keeps the schedule going while the deep one takes six hours.
- Plan the quick format properly, at a quality you are happy with, instead of throwing it together on a Thursday night.
- With more than five formats, none of them gets known well enough for people to name it.
Three formats, one year
One brings new viewers in, one rewards the people already there, and one gets you through a bad week.
A short one for new viewers
Short, opinionated, made for people who do not know you
A deep one for fans
The reason anyone subscribes. It takes hours.
A quick one for busy weeks
Made in an hour, even in your worst week
Keep all three for six months
Before adding, cutting or renaming anything
How often should a creator post?
Pick a number you could still manage in a bad month. For most people that is one video a week, sometimes two.
- A bad month is one where you are ill, travelling and chasing an invoice. Plan the schedule for that month, not a good one.
- Have two weeks of finished videos ready before you announce a schedule.
- Frequent posts build a habit, and deeper videos give people a reason to subscribe.
- A common mix is one frequent format and one deep one, because the frequent one keeps the habit and the deep one is why people subscribe.
- When you end a format, say so, say why and make a last episode. It builds trust for the next one.
Interviews or solo videos: which is better?
Interviews bring reach, and solo videos build who you are. If you can only run one, run solo videos.
- Interviews cost time in booking, rescheduling and audio that failed without anyone noticing.
- Solo videos need something worth saying every week, and nobody brings an audience for you.
- Solo formats belong to you, and they keep going in a month when no guest answers your emails.
What each one gives you
Most working creators run both. If you can only run one, pick solo videos.
Audience
- Interviews
- Borrowed from the guest, so it grows faster at the start
- Solo videos
- Grows more slowly, and it stays with you
Deadlines
- Interviews
- Set by someone else's calendar
- Solo videos
- Set by you alone
Your identity
- Interviews
- Mixed with each guest's subject
- Solo videos
- Yours, every time
Short clips
- Interviews
- Need context, hard to clip
- Solo videos
- Easy to clip, because you wrote them
A bad week
- Interviews
- The guest carries it
- Solo videos
- Only you can carry it
| Interviews | Solo videos | |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | Borrowed from the guest, so it grows faster at the start | Grows more slowly, and it stays with you |
| Deadlines | Set by someone else's calendar | Set by you alone |
| Your identity | Mixed with each guest's subject | Yours, every time |
| Short clips | Need context, hard to clip | Easy to clip, because you wrote them |
| A bad week | The guest carries it | Only you can carry it |
When should a creator hire a video editor?
After your formats exist. Editing limits how often you can post, so it shapes your schedule.
- Editors quote either a price per video or a monthly retainer. Ask for the price per video on your longest format first, so you can compare quotes.
- Rates vary by country and by how much work a format needs, so no single figure is worth quoting. Get three quotes and pay for one real edit before you sign anything.
- A common problem is the creator doing all the editing and spending whole months timing captions.
- Hire after the formats exist, because a format is a brief a new person can follow from the first month.
- Do not buy tools too early, because a format may not survive its first six weeks.
Three ways to handle the editing
| Option | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Post the video as recorded | Free, with the caption tools in the posting apps | Formats you are still testing |
| Hire an editor | A cost that recurs whether you post or not, and usually the largest one a creator takes on. Ask for a price per video before you commit. | Proven formats, once you can explain them to someone |
| Cutroom | About 110 credits for a 30-second video | Proven formats built on you talking to camera |
Option: Post the video as recorded
- Cost
- Free, with the caption tools in the posting apps
- Best for
- Formats you are still testing
Option: Hire an editor
- Cost
- A cost that recurs whether you post or not, and usually the largest one a creator takes on. Ask for a price per video before you commit.
- Best for
- Proven formats, once you can explain them to someone
Option: Cutroom
- Cost
- About 110 credits for a 30-second video
- Best for
- Proven formats built on you talking to camera
Where Cutroom fits
Cutroom edits formats built on you talking to camera. You upload the video and get a finished one back in about a minute.
- You upload one video of you talking, up to 3 minutes long. One upload makes one video.
- You get a finished 9:16 MP4 with captions in one of 40 caption styles, a hook at the start, zoom-ins and footage on the words that need it.
- You change it by editing the transcript, not a timeline.
- Cutroom cannot clip a long interview, and it only exports vertical video, so a wide version is a separate job.
- Each video costs 100 credits to edit plus 20 per minute to export, so about 110 credits for 30 seconds and 120 for a minute. Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos of 30 seconds, with no Cutroom mark.
Questions people ask
- What makes a creator a media company?
- Named formats, a schedule the audience can rely on, and income not tied entirely to one platform. Audience size is not on that list. Many small publications are real businesses, and many large accounts are one algorithm change away from having nothing.
- How many video formats should a creator run?
- Three. One that brings new viewers in, one deep enough to be the reason people subscribe, and one quick enough to make in your worst week. With more than five, none of them gets known well enough for anyone to name it.
- Should I hire before or after the formats exist?
- After, almost always. A format is a brief, and a brief makes a new hire useful in the first month instead of the sixth. Hiring first usually leaves a talented person waiting to be told what to make.
- Do interviews or solo videos grow an audience faster?
- It depends on the guests you can book, and anyone quoting a rate is guessing. Interviews borrow the guest's audience, so they usually grow faster at the start. Solo videos grow more slowly, but the audience they bring is yours and it stays when the guest is gone.
- What happens to my formats when I take a month off?
- Plan for it with more than the usual two weeks of finished videos. Keep the quick format running, pause the deep one publicly with a return date, and say so on camera. An announced pause costs nothing. A silent one looks like the business is ending.
Name three formats, get two weeks of videos ready, and pick a schedule you could keep in a bad month. Your first video is free.
Try for freeYour first video is free, no card, and you have 7 days to make it. It carries a Cutroom mark; Lite at $19.99/month removes it