Social Rocket
Former television journalists are using their visibility to build their own creator businesses. Terry Moran, Dr. Jen Ashton and Vinita Nair use newsletters, social video, memberships or consulting offers instead of working exclusively for a broadcaster. An Adweek report from October 2026 describes the three examples. The decisive shift, however, is not the change of publishing format, but who controls access to the audience and the customer relationship.
From Social Reach to Your Own Product
Dr. Jen Ashton's case makes the model especially visible: her brand Ajenda combines a free health newsletter with paid programs and a community. The publicly accessible newsletter archive shows that the offering was regularly continued in October 2026. According to a beehiiv case study from April 2025, the launch of a paid program generated 750.000 dollars in revenue within 90 days, with more than 5.000 participants and without paid advertising. The figures come from the participating newsletter platform; the case study contains no independent verification and no information on profit.
In the Paid Newsletter Report 2026, beehiiv names more than 13.000 members for the now expanded Ajenda offering. This too is a platform/company figure and not a general benchmark for what journalists can earn with newsletters.
Terry Moran relies on Real Patriotism for his own political reporting, newsletters, posts and direct reader support. According to Adweek, Vinita Nair combines content with communications consulting for companies. The three therefore do not necessarily earn from the same product: journalistic content, specialist programs and services have different costs and revenue models.
The Demand Side: News Migrates to Social and Video
The Reuters Digital News Report 2026 provides the broader context: worldwide, 54 percent of respondents used social media and video platforms as a news source. 27 percent got at least some news from individual creators specializing in news. In Germany, 18 percent described social media or video as their most important news source – four percentage points more than the previous year.
These figures are not evidence of paying newsletter customers. In the same report, only three percent worldwide said they rely exclusively on creators for news. The usual model is therefore more of a multi-step funnel: social content enables discovery, a newsletter binds the audience directly, and a paid offering finances deeper services.
What Really Matters for Creators and Publishers
Owned audience: An email list can enable a more durable direct relationship than purely algorithmic reach. Deliverability, consent and recipients' trust nevertheless remain ongoing tasks.
Conversion instead of follower count: For a sustainable calculation, free subscribers, active readers, paying members, cancellations and costs must be considered separately. In its report, beehiiv reports a platform-wide median free-to-paid conversion of 0,62 percent. Individual prominent media personalities with existing communities are not a representative example.
Editorial independence and advertising: For independent journalistic offerings, paid partnerships and editorial content must remain clearly separated. Personal credibility does not replace source verification.
Related strategies also include Piers Morgan building his own subscriptions while keeping his YouTube channel open, our analysis of the revenue problems faced by news creators and Substack's new advertising model for podcast archives.
Bottom line: Independence does not automatically mean profitable journalism. The examples do show, however, that newsletters, social video, programs and memberships together can form a direct, measurable revenue structure beyond traditional broadcaster contracts.