In today’s media business, journalists are creators and creators are journalists. This has been particularly evident during the World Cup. Publishers have sent staff to the competition in the USA, Canada, and Mexico not just to file traditional reports, but to create “content” – in the form of vertical video. This approach is essential for publishers to connect to younger audiences and stay relevant. Meanwhile, creators in the sports space are using the tournament to release a lot of work and supercharge their following.

One of those is Joey D’Urso. Formerly on staff at the BBC, The Times and The Athletic, he is now an author and reporter covering how politics and sport intersect. Social media, Instagram and Substack in particular, are crucial to what he does.

Long before the tournament kicked-off, D’Urso knew it offered a crucial opportunity to build his following. Growth does not happen overnight, and you must develop your content strategy and audience heading into a landmark event.

It was “important to build up in January, February. I was posting a lot” he tells DCN. Describing his growth as “non-linear”, D’Urso says he saw a significant boost in his audience around April. While he had accepted that monetization would take time, he saw the tournament was a unique growth opportunity for someone in his niche. He has gone on to make a video about every match taking place.

Social media content creation is not the end game for D’Urso. He is using it to drive people towards his Substack newsletter and book – More Than a Shirt. However, he doesn’t see it as an inconvenient extra that he must do, either. Far from it.

“As someone who’s written a book and written for serious publications, I think it would be very nice to sit in a big armchair with a glass of whiskey and write long, profound thoughts all the time and turn my nose up at Instagram,” he says. “But actually, it’s where the energy is, it’s where the eyeballs are, it’s where the people are.” He now has almost 72,000 followers on the platform

Mainstream outlets in the creator economy

Mainstream outlets have also realized the necessity of being a part of the creator economy and maximizing the opportunities it provides. For them, consistently posting engaging content is crucial to reaching a younger demographic who are not going to their linear TV channels, print products, or websites.

The Daily Mail is the largest news publisher on TikTok. Nick Moar, head of new media at the Daily Mail Group, told DCN that his company has “built out a team of content creators who are on staff, they’re part of our organization, who front and ideate our original videos.” They now boast a team of a hundred people building that business, underlining how seriously they are taking the strategy.

The Daily Mail took time to develop its audience before launching into brand partnerships, which is their central method of monetizing the content. However, that revenue stream is now well-established.

The outlet has fully utilized its creator business during the World Cup, but here is an interesting dilemma. Strict advertising rules imposed by football’s governing body, Fifa, mean that “we can’t particularly integrate directly to the World Cup”, explains Moar.

Instead, “we’ve built a really large and engaged audience who love our content, like our creators, and engage with our original formats,” he says. “We need to give them consistent value. So, the reason we’re covering World Cup is we want to give them loads and loads of amazing free content that they enjoy and can engage with. And then every, I don’t know, fiftieth video will be a brand partnership with those same creators.”

To do this, reporter Charlotte Daly has been dispatched to the US to make videos throughout the tournament. Her colleague Henry Williams is in Europe “spending time with fans”, including being in Morrocco for Morrocco vs Scotland.

They have found that simply pushing out adverts does not work. Authenticity and audiences engaging with creators builds a connection that can be successfully monetized, though.

Engaging with audiences where they are

Of course, DMG is not the only media brand pursuing a creator-led strategy. Some outlets are even striking up partnerships with external creators during the World Cup. For instance, the BBC teamed up with YouTube megastars The Sidemen, broadcasting a watch along on their iPlayer streaming services for Ecuador vs Germany. In the US, IShowSpeeed struck a wide-ranging deal with US broadcaster Fox, Fifa and YouTube.

Danni Moore, senior analyst at Ampere Sports, explains that, “For broadcasters, teaming up with established creators for the World Cup is essentially meeting sports fans where they already are.”

She noted that  “the group stage matches that both the Sidemen and IShowSpeed showed in the UK and US respectively were ones that wouldn’t have especially high interest as they didn’t involve the national teams. So, working with the creators gave the broadcasters a new way to entice fans in to watch games that they otherwise probably wouldn’t have, through their existing interest in the personalities doing the watchalongs.”

Such collaborations are something “on the roadmap” for the Daily Mail, reveals Moar. However, those plans will be executed after the World Cup.

Advertisers, too, are using creators to reach fans and capitalize on the World Cup. Unilever launched a campaign led by Unilever Personal Care, including dozens of brands such as Dove, Dove Men+Care, Rexona/Degree and Axe /Lynx. It collaborated with a range of influencers and opened an in-person creator hub in Mexico City, New York and Miami.

Announcing the activation, Afke van de Klashorst , Vice President of Integrated Brand Experience, Unilever Personal Care said: “The FIFA World Cup 2026 is one of the biggest cultural moments on the planet. Our ambition is for our brands to show up in spaces where fandom lives and in ways that are authentic, native to social, and meaningful by bringing freshness and confidence to matchday moments that matter most for fans, players and spectators.”

Overall, creators have been at the heart of strategies for both publishers and brands during the World Cup. The combination of a global event and the ability of creators to reach younger audiences on the channels they actually use can not be ignored. The widespread creator strategies used during the tournament underline how a creator strategy – be it in house or through strategic partnerships – has become a critical audience engagement strategy for media brands. Moving forward, publishers need to invest in building their own creator talent and their overall strategy, which may include creator partnerships. This approach will allow them to regularly connect with a key demographic. It also means that next time a major event like the World Cup comes along will be in a position to take full advantage.