Too Long, Did Read 📜
Inside this channel's (successful) print magazine
Neighbors,
I’ve really enjoyed hopping on calls with you, learning more about your media diet—and listening to your feedback.
One cool thing I’m always reminded of: Our readers are based everywhere from Durham, North Carolina to Sydney, Australia. While this means many of you can’t attend our gatherings regularly, it’s always surreal to hop on a call and hear, “How did the last Block Party go?”
In other words, it means a lot to know that this neighborhood is expanding beyond our studio’s walls. That readers are following along from our backyard in Chicago to cities a world away.
I’d still love to meet you (or catch up!) between now and the end of the year. If you’re interested in chatting, grab time on my calendar here.
Once you’ve done that, scroll on for a new column of Five Things I Think (I Think).
— NGL
P.S. We’re hosting our last Show Your Work! night of the year this Thursday. RSVP here.
P.P.S. Last blog, we reviewed Cleo Abram’s new blockbuster explainer video. You can read it here.
1.
I think the case for print is much simpler than you think. I recently stumbled upon Too Long, the semi-regular print magazine created by TLDR News.
TLDR is a group of YouTube channels owned and operated by twenty-nine-year-old commentary creator Jack Kelly. Jack launched the original channel in 2017, while he was a college student in Britain. Around that time, Brexit negotiations dominated the news cycle, yet Jack felt there were no outlets unpacking new developments in a way that could engage young audiences.
It may seem obvious now, but with a general lack of competition from traditional outlets on YouTube, Jack’s consistent coverage (and British-centric lens) stood out. Eight years later, TLDR runs a handful of channels from their London studios and counts twelve full-time employees.
In 2023, Jack announced a new venture: Too Long. “We’re doing something a little silly,” the video’s description reads. “We’re going backwards and conquering the medium we skipped by releasing an official TLDR Newspaper.”
Two years and five editions later, the creator peeled back the curtain. Customers purchased over 7,000 copies of their latest edition, Jack explained on a podcast, netting £87,000 in sales—the equivalent of $116,000.
Not all of that was profit. The Too Long team harbors five-figure costs on everything from printing to shipping to paying contributors. Yet Jack shared that the issue drove more revenue than some of their YouTube channels do in an entire year; even the podcast technically loses money, he said.
The simple lesson here: A million-subscriber YouTube channel is a powerful billboard, sure. But the deeper layer I believe contributed to Too Long’s early success is Jack’s transparency. TLDR has built trust with their audience over eight years through well-produced, accessible news coverage. When they drop a project like Too Long—and explain just how far direct purchases go in supporting the entire operation—the message resonates.
Which brings me full circle. By my rough estimate, a YouTube channel would need twenty-nine million views on longform videos to generate as much revenue (via AdSense) as Too Long Issue Five.
The case for print isn’t rooted purely in physical media cool. Condé Nast’s heyday (and basic economics) are certainly rooted in the past, but for indie creators and publishers, print is a direct form of patronage that rewards core superfans with something special—and real.
2.
I think I’ve been covering the creator world for a long time. I was reading TLDR’s Wikipedia page and stumbled upon this line: “Their income largely derives from a mix of YouTube advertisement revenue and from sponsorships set up by their network Nebula.”
Curious, I clicked on the footnote after “Nebula.” Here’s the source they used:
Yup, whoever assembled the Wikipedia page referenced an article I wrote for Publish Press.
Some of the conversations I have these days are with people I’m shocked to realize I’ve known for four or five years at this point. I’m not sure when I have to apply for my Unc Card, but that day is fast approaching.
3.
I think we should free the Man in the Bean. In July, a series of protests erupted in Downtown Chicago. The black-shades-clad activists had an explosive accusation: Anish Kapoor, the British designer behind Chicago’s famous Cloud Gate (aka “The Bean”), kidnapped an infant in 2006—and trapped him inside the statue, where he’s been growing up ever since.
The campaign blew up. Outlets everywhere from Chicago to China covered it. The “Man in Bean Coalition” refused to speak to what they labeled “Big Bean Media,” with many writing off the group’s work as “performance art.”
We’ve been following this closely, and will have more to share in the near future. For now, though, I’ll report that we did attend The Coalition’s live show this past Thursday night, which featured everything from a heavy metal performance to a silent, visual recreation of the infant’s kidnapping to a man wearing just a diaper (and eating beans with chopsticks).
To be honest, I expected nothing less.
4.
I think Netflix’s Warner Bros. acquisition is a bigger story than just shrinking theatrical windows. Yes, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos likes to use language such as “consumer-first” when describing why his company opts for a direct-to-streaming model instead of three-month theatrical runs. And yes, it’s ironic that this acquisition is happening during a year in which Warner Bros. dominated the box office with original hits including Sinners and Weapons.
But as Lucas Shaw reported in Bloomberg, this acquisition came together through a string of back-channel meetings between Sarandos and President Donald Trump. The story of media consolidation is one that, these days, runs through the White House, and it’s alarming to see the rate at which antitrust laws are being tossed to the side in favor of influence that can easily be curried (or even bought).
5.
I think we have a big announcement coming on our YouTube channel very soon. Have you subscribed yet?
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.