The Legacy Media Lag
When ideas debated on Substack and TikTok for months are “discovered” by mainstream publications.
What’s going on?
“In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing,” declared The Cut on January 3.
It’s hard to disagree – largely because the value of friction was extensively discussed throughout 2025, notably on Substack by kyla scanlon (to and beyond her audience of 139k subscribers in April) and Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick (in October, it to and beyond an audience of 18k subscribers).
All of which is to say: the creator economy predicted to grow even further in 2026, so it feels inevitable that even more mainstream publications will be exploring similar trends and shifts as Substack and TikTok articles. Which means they’ll have to develop a point of view.
What’s driving it?
Two convergent developments:
1: Creator-focused platforms have brought informal discourse to public (and traceable) spaces – which makes it hard to overlook when an idea has already been developed.
2: More people are getting their news and analysis from non-traditional sources. Of course there are bigger implications (which I’ve previously written about) BUT for the purposes of this article, it means that audiences are increasingly likely to have encountered specific ideas and debates in the cultural zeitgeist some time before they reach legacy outlets.
What does it mean?
I’ve been talking to Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick himself about it, who said:
“A lot of us are swimming in the same waters and will come to similar conclusions, but it’s on editors to start poking around a bit more to ensure a pitch is truly unique – or that they’re incorporating similar chatter within a story.”
Readers aren’t ignorant – they’ll recognize ideas they’ve seen before. And when those ideas are reframed as fresh discoveries, it raises an uncomfortable question about what legacy publications are actually offering. (Authority? Context? Synthesis? Or just a rehash?)
Final takeaway
When an idea has already been debated on creator platforms, legacy media need to be clear about what they’re adding to the conversation before they decide to cover it (and do their due diligence in acknowledging the context) – because otherwise, what are they offering at all?