Based Camp | Simone & Malcolm Collins

How Influencers Became Strictly Better Than Journalists

26 snips
Feb 11, 2026
They unpack the collapse of legacy newsrooms and why big papers are losing relevance. They map a new media ecosystem of niche researchers, synthesizers, and commentators. They praise citizen war reporting, Substack-style patron journalism, and teen investigators breaking major stories. They warn about AI-driven verification crises and algorithmic narrowing of information.
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INSIGHT

Small Channels Trump Legacy Reach

  • Legacy outlets attract few deep readers and often survive via subscription signaling rather than engagement.
  • Malcolm Collins shows small channels can equal dozens of legacy journalists in real influence.
INSIGHT

Subscriptions Often Signal, Not Inform

  • Most mainstream articles get tiny full-read audiences despite huge pageviews.
  • Simone Collins explains many subscriptions are social or self-signaling, not active readership.
INSIGHT

The New Media Pyramid Works Better

  • New creator ecosystems recreate old news roles: on-the-ground research, synthesis, then commentary.
  • Malcolm Collins argues this decentralized pyramid often yields better coverage than legacy media.
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