NEW YORK, NY
Ten years ago, Matt Bellassai got drunk at his BuzzFeed desk every Wednesday and complained about stuff on camera. His show "Whine About It" was deliberately unserious—part performance art, part millennial therapy session, all viral content.
What nobody realized at the time was that Bellassai was accidentally pioneering the future of journalism.
While most media professionals were still treating social platforms as glorified press release distribution channels, Bellassai was building something different: a personal brand that transcended his employer. By 2018, he'd parlayed his BuzzFeed success into an independent media career—podcast, memoir, owned content, owned audience.
That transition wasn't just a career move. It was a preview of the seismic shift happening across media right now.
Traditional journalism has always had its stars. Walter Cronkite, Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow—household names whose personal brands became inseparable from their news organizations. But these were exceptions, carefully cultivated celebrities in a system designed around institutional authority.
Look at what's happening on LinkedIn. Reporters like Allison Carter of PR Daily and Alex Lieberman of Morning Brew have built massive personal followings—tens of thousands of engaged professionals who follow them specifically, not just their publications. These aren't accidents or side projects. They're strategic assets that drive traffic, engagement, and influence in ways traditional editorial content simply can't match.
The math is compelling. When a reporter with 50,000 LinkedIn followers shares an article, it reaches a targeted audience that's already invested in that individual's perspective. When the same article gets published through traditional channels alone, it competes with thousands of other pieces for algorithmic attention.
Publications are starting to notice. They're realizing that their most valuable assets aren't just good writers—they're writers who can build and engage audiences across multiple platforms.
This shift reflects a broader transformation in how content creates value. In the old media model, individual journalists were replaceable parts in an institutional machine. The publication was the brand, and individual contributors were largely interchangeable.
Smart media companies are adapting by treating their best reporters less like employees and more like partners. They're encouraging personal brand building because they understand that strong individual brands ultimately strengthen institutional brands.
But this creates new dynamics that newsrooms aren't entirely prepared for. When a reporter builds a significant personal following, they're no longer just creating content—they're creating portable value that exists independently of their employer.
We're about to see this evolution accelerate dramatically. The reporters who've built strong personal brands on text-based platforms are perfectly positioned to expand into video, audio, and other multimedia formats.
Imagine Kyle Wiggers, a well-known TechCrunch reporter, creating a weekly video series about the most notable funding rounds. Or Eleanor Hawkins developing a broadcast segment to complement her popular Axios Communicators newsletter. These aren't far-fetched scenarios—they're inevitable next steps for journalists who understand where the industry is heading.
This multimedia expansion will create new challenges for both reporters and their employers. Video content requires different skills than written journalism. Building a consistent social media presence demands time and energy that could otherwise go toward traditional reporting. Managing a personal brand while maintaining journalistic objectivity requires careful navigation.
But the opportunities are enormous. Multi-platform journalists can reach broader audiences, command higher fees, and build more sustainable career foundations than their single-platform counterparts.
As individual reporters build larger personal platforms, newsroom dynamics will inevitably shift. The journalists with significant followings will become harder to reach, more selective about their coverage, and more valuable to competitors.
For PR professionals, this changes everything about media relations. Pitching becomes more complex because you're not just convincing someone to cover a story—you're convincing them to associate their personal brand with your narrative.
The most successful journalist-influencers will develop distinct personalities and perspectives that shape their coverage. Just as Bellassai was known for being unfiltered and irreverent, today's emerging media personalities will cultivate specific voices that differentiate them from competitors.
This means PR strategies need to become more sophisticated. You can't just match stories to beats—you need to understand individual journalists' personal brands and tailor pitches accordingly. A story that works for one reporter's audience might be completely wrong for another's, even if they cover the same topics. Perhaps the biggest change is that journalism is becoming more explicitly entertaining. The line between information and entertainment was already blurring, but the influencer model accelerates this trend.
When reporters need to build personal audiences across multiple platforms, pure information isn't enough. They need personality, perspective, and entertainment value. They need to give audiences reasons to follow them specifically rather than just consuming their content passively.
This doesn't necessarily mean journalism becomes less serious—it means serious journalism needs to be packaged in more engaging ways. The reporters who succeed in this environment will be those who can maintain credibility while building compelling personal brands.
This transformation requires a complete rethinking of how stories are pitched and covered. Traditional PR focused on matching stories to publications and beats. The new model requires understanding individual journalists as content creators with unique audiences and perspectives.
Successful pitches will need to consider not just whether a story fits a publication's editorial calendar, but whether it aligns with a reporter's personal brand and content strategy. A funding announcement might work well for traditional print coverage, but the same story needs different angles for video content, podcast discussions, or social media conversations.
The most forward-thinking PR professionals are already adapting by building relationships with journalists as individuals rather than just institutional representatives. They're following reporters across platforms, understanding their content styles, and crafting pitches that work for multimedia storytelling.
The rise of journalist-influencers isn't a trend that might happen—it's a transformation that's already underway. The only question is how quickly individual reporters and media organizations adapt to the new reality.
The journalists who embrace personal brand building early will have significant advantages as the industry continues evolving. They'll build audiences that provide career security regardless of institutional changes. They'll develop skills that translate across platforms and formats. They'll create value that belongs to them rather than just their employers.
For everyone else in the media ecosystem—sources, PR professionals, readers—this evolution requires new strategies and expectations. The media landscape is becoming more personal, more interactive, and more dependent on individual relationships than institutional ones.
The future belongs to journalists who understand that their personal brand is their most valuable professional asset. Matt Bellassai figured this out accidentally while getting drunk on camera. The next generation of media professionals would be wise to learn the lesson intentionally.
In a world where attention is the ultimate currency, the journalists who can capture and hold that attention on their own terms will write the future of the industry—literally and figuratively.
