"Tick Tock" For Short-Form?

Newsletter + On This Day

In case you didn’t already know, I’m not a fan of TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or anything designed to encourage bigger reactions and smaller returns. Virality? Spare me.

Platforms big and small keep jockeying to prove they’re the best at short-form, but none seem to know how to consistently make money off mostly brain-dead views.

TikTok has quickly become the front-runner of short-form video, putting a big target on ByteDance, its parent company, by both lawmakers and its competitors.

While ByteDance’s co-founder is (allegedly) China’s wealthiest individual, TikTok as a platform, despite all its hype, has never made a profit. At least if you believe headlines.

As TikTok’s competitors—including YouTube, Meta, and others—chase the supposed gold mine of dwindling attention spans, they’re discovering that millions of quick swipes don’t exactly translate into steady revenue.

Turns out some people’s attention spans may be short, but the road to profits is long.

One of the reasons I stopped making short-form videos (again, for the 100th time) is that it’s not worth the risk of burnout. And, for me, the numbers just don’t add up.

While my channel is “small” compared to many, my most popular video on YouTube Shorts got 25.8K views and attracted 122 new subscribers to the channel. Sounds great…until you realize I can barely afford the cheapest cup of coffee at Starbucks with its Google AdSense revenue to date. Good thing I don’t drink coffee, right?

What’s worse is those new subscribers are mostly interested in watching more Shorts, not my long-form videos. So they actually hurt the channel overall.

For most creators—big and small—YouTube Shorts don’t make dollars or sense. And some YouTube executives realize Shorts will ultimately cannibalize the platform.

Why does it matter? If you watch videos online, this “inside baseball” is intended to explain what you’re likely already seeing: As YouTube focuses more on Shorts and less on long-form videos, more (and more) creators are turning to subscribers for support (via platforms like Substack and Ko-Fi).

Personally, I love what I do, but the reality is I also need to make a living, and YouTube Shorts just doesn’t cut it. So, a huge thank you to all my patrons—past, present, and future—for supporting and sharing my work. You make a real difference in my life.

I like to make—and watch—content that’s more than just a “snack” but not quite a “meal.” Usually between ten and thirty minutes long. Perfect to watch on a break.

For me, it’s important audiences have enough time to enjoy and digest the images and stories I create and/or curate.

Long-form content doesn’t chase quick swipes or views. But it does encourage more community and humanity. So that’s where I’ll be focusing my attention and energy.

Thanks for reading…and watching!
Clint

P.S. For those who feel “sad” when watching “nostalgic” videos, a few words I wish I wrote by Ethan’s TV Junk Yard:

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NEWS + VIEWS

• Did TikTok Ruin YouTube? (Zackary Smigel) 📺

• YouTube Shorts are getting less short (The Verge)

• TikTok meets Bluesky on a new app called Loops (Tubefilter)

• TikTok US Ban: Here’s Why Time Is Running Out! (The Music Essentials)

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ON THIS DAY = OCTOBER

BIRTHDAYS

• 1892 = Charles Atlas = Italian-American bodybuilder

• 1896 = Ruth Gordon = American actor and screenwriter

• 1932 = Louis Malle = French filmmaker

• 1939 = Grace Slick = American singer-songwriter

• 1945 = Henry Winkler = American actor and producer

• 1951 = Harry Hamlin = American actor

• 1954 = Mario Testino = Peruvian-English photographer

• 1965 = Gavin Rossdale = English singer-songwriter

• 1968 = Jack Plotnick = American actor and filmmaker

• 1978 = Matthew Morrison = American actor and singer-songwriter

CELEBRATIONS

• LGBTQ History Month

• National Wicked Day

EVENTS

• 1873 = P.T. Barnum's “Greatest Show on Earth” debuts in NYC.

• 1921 = The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, premieres in Los Angeles.

• 1938 = Orson Welles broadcasts The War of the Worlds on CBS Radio.

• 1945 = Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the baseball color line.

• 1968 = Silent film star Ramon Novarro, is murdered on October 30, 1968, by brothers Paul and Tom Ferguson, aged 22 and 17, who called him and offered their sexual services. In the past, he had hired prostitutes from an agency to come to his Laurel Canyon home for sex, and the Fergusons obtained Novarro's telephone number from a previous guest.

• 1974 = The Texas Chain Saw Massacre premiers in Los Angeles.

• 1974 = The Cycle Sluts—14 men in lingerie, makeup, beehives, beards, mustaches, and leather jackets—premiere in Los Angeles.

• 2002 = Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC is shot and killed in his recording studio.

• 2003 = Wicked, starring Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth, premieres on Broadway.

• 2012 = The Walt Disney Company announced a deal to purchase Lucasfilm, including the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, for $4.05 billion.

• 2017 = A federal judge blocks Trump's ban on transgender people in the military.

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PHOTO + QUOTE OF THE DAY

CHARLES ATLAS MEASUREMENTS

“Step by step and the thing is done.”
Charles Atlas

NEW + FEATURED

• Thirst Traps #1 (NSFW)

• Once More With Feeling (NSFW)

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