Mehdi Hasan realized that he survived the jump from linear to digital after an encounter in a men’s room. “Another man came out and started talking to me,” Hasan recalled. “He pointed at me and said, ‘You’re …’ — and I thought he was going to say, ‘You’re Mehdi Hasan from MSNBC, you’re the guy from Piers Morgan, you’re the guy from Jubilee or the Oxford Union’ — he said, ‘You’re that guy from Zeteo, right?’ And I said, ‘Yes, that is me. The Zeteo guy.’

“When the brand is being used to identify you in public restrooms, that is when you know you have made it,” Hasan quipped, speaking to a crowd of well-wishers that included comedian Hasan Minhaj, chef José Andrés and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in a midtown Manhattan Lebanese restaurant in April.

Hasan is one of a small number of TV news veterans who have built a viable business after leaving behind the lucrative but slowly declining world of linear media. On-air talent across the spectrum is dealing with the drawn-out death of TV in different ways. Some are seeking better time slots paired with digital extensions that can net them bigger contracts from TV networks desperate to break free from diminishing pay TV revenue. Others are resigned to having paychecks slashed or remaining static, clinging to their lucrative deals for as long as they can. “Everyone is obsessed with their brand now,” is how one TV news veteran explains it.

TV news operations, well aware of the changing dynamics, are getting into the game as well. MS NOW inked a deal with Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor’s Crooked Media to televise some of their video podcasts on TV, and they won’t be the last. Licensing video podcasts, it turns out, is a pretty cost-effective way to fill linear hours that need constant content.

One insider predicts that there will be a slew of “hybrid” deals over the course of the next few years, with TV talent keeping one foot in each bucket of the business. And the good news for TV vets is that the marketplace for news, talk and interview content seems to be expanding. Yes, YouTube has become the de facto home for it, but TV channels are now buyers, as are platforms like SiriusXM and, much to the amazement of some, Netflix too (hello, Brian Williams).

Agents, anchors and others in the ecosystem are looking outside of the TV glass, envious of TV alumni like Hasan or Megyn Kelly, who found success on the other side, cognizant of the way the wind is blowing. In one notable recent poll, online personalities and comedians were named as primary news sources for consumers.

But going indie is far from easy. A TV anchor not only gets a six-, seven- or eight-figure salary, and all the benefits and perquisites that come from corporate employment, but they also get an entire staff of producers and crewmembers who, to be blunt, often do most of the work. While there are plenty of workaholic news anchors (looking at you, Andrew Ross Sorkin), there are others who show up an hour before air, read the teleprompter and head home.

Breaking off on your own, by contrast, is not only risky but expensive. Sources say that the costs to hire a modest production team and build a video podcast setup that meets the current standard can run from mid-six figures to $1 million. “It’s scary,” says one journalist who spent years at a TV network before going digital. “You need to work harder than you ever have in your life.”

But before talent takes that leap, they need to ask themselves some difficult questions: Do they have the stomach to operate as a business owner and risk fading into irrelevance? And is there an audience for what they have to sell? “Is this person an artifact of their time period? Or do they have an actual fan base?” one veteran in the space says bluntly. “If you took the 4 o’clock host at NewsNation and just put them on YouTube, they’re going to make $4.75.”

Or, to frame it differently: The personalities who have found success in digital almost all have a strong point of view. An anchor who holds back may have a tougher time. “I think you should always have a different expectation for what a straight news creator economy show would do versus what a point of view or interview-type of creator economy show would do,” says Chris Balfe, CEO of Red Seat Ventures, which provides services to podcast hosts and creators.

Source: Drudge Report