In the mid-2010s, television journalist and former chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin left her job at CNN to go independent. A few years later, she founded News Not Noise, a multi-platform news outlet that publishes all across the internet (mainly on Substack, Instagram and YouTube). It made Yellin one of the first journalists to ditch mainstream media for social media, and it’s given her a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing independent journalists, newsfluencers, and content creators in a crowded media environment. In a live interview hosted by the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earlier this fall, Kara and Jessica talk about what it takes to be a successful online news creator, the effects President Trump’s attacks on fact-based journalism have had on the news business as a whole, and how news creators can adapt to changing social media algorithms and AI. They also talk about solutions that could help the entire news industry in an era of waning public trust. Please note: This conversation was recorded before X rolled out a new transparency location feature, revealing some prominent pro-MAGA accounts are not based in the U.S. despite claims on their profiles. Questions? Comments? Email us at
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