#creators

Instagram is reportedly offering one-off payments of up to $500,000 to a selection of big-name creators to post long-form videos in Features, its new format for horizontal videos up to 90 minutes, Social Media Today reports. It is also giving long-form video a prominent spot at the top of the Explore page for some users, per screenshots shared by creator-economy analyst Lia Haberman.

The push addresses creators' main question: why post long videos on Instagram when its payouts are nowhere near YouTube's Partner Program? Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has acknowledged the app will need to change its payment program to attract long-form creators but hasn't settled how, Social Media Today reports. This follows Instagram's test of Features, which we covered last week.

A video of a prankster pretending to steal money from a Red Baron employee's phone spread widely online this week, Newsweek reports. The worker, a father of four identified only as "Walt," angrily told the prankster it was not a joke to him; he said he was working late to make ends meet and was due back early the next morning to cover more stores.

A stranger in Arizona started a GoFundMe titled "Support a Harassed Red Baron Worker." Per Newsweek, it stood at about $5,500 on Wednesday afternoon, passed $48,000 that night and topped $100,000 on Thursday. Conservative commentator Benny Johnson helped spread the appeal, VINnews reports. The prankster's Instagram account has gone dark, according to Newsweek.

Newsweek's Shane Croucher argues the happy ending is "a lottery": viral attention rescued one worker, while most crowdfunding campaigns fall short.

YouTube is testing a Shorts bonus program, invitation-only, with creators in the US, UK, Germany, Brazil, Japan and South Korea, Music Ally reports, citing YouTube's Rene Ritchie in a Creator Insider video. It offers a minimum payment for uploading a set number of public Shorts per month, plus a monthly "promotional payment" based on views.

The required numbers are not public; YouTube says they will be in the invitation emails. Music Ally notes the test follows YouTube raising its Partner Program thresholds in August and saying earlier this month that the Shorts algorithm will favor original content over re-uploads.

Instagram is testing a format called "Features" that lets creators post horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long, the A.V. Club reports. Instagram head Adam Mosseri, who said "for a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram," announced it Monday, Oct. 26, in a nearly seven-minute video with product VP Tessa Lyons.

Lyons said people like watching Reels together on a TV, and a TV version of Reels needs more than short-form video. Mosseri described a "symbiotic" link between short and long videos across the mobile app and Instagram's TV app, and said the rollout will expand to more users over time. The National reports that it is being tested with select US creators after a trial in Brazil, and that Features videos will also appear in Instagram for TV, now on Apple TV in the US.

Neither executive named competitors, but the A.V. Club notes the move puts Instagram closer to YouTube's long-form territory.

Alza, billed as New York City's first microdrama film festival, ran Oct. 16-18, founded by former Tribeca Festival COO Pete Torres, The Verge reports. It screened vertical series and features made for phone apps, including a vertical Pride and Prejudice, in a Manhattan AMC theater, alongside industry panels.

The reviewer found jump cuts from the apps' short-episode format jarring and screenings far from full, but heard laughter and gasps from an audience of many middle-aged women. Executives at GammaTime, founded by former Miramax CEO Bill Block, said they target "mainstream women who are part of this mobile-first movement," including former daytime TV viewers.

After screenshots on X showed YouTube's dislike button moved into the three-dot menu, YouTube told The Verge on Oct. 21 that it is "not testing hiding the dislike button on YouTube for users." Spokesperson Kimberly Taylor said a new layout is coming for creators viewing their own uploads, with dislike behind the menu; creators can still see full dislike counts in YouTube Studio. It rolls out "in the coming weeks."

The Verge notes YouTube hid public dislike counts in 2021 to curb harassment and removed the dislike button from Shorts earlier this year.

The Stokes Twins’ “Escaping Level 1-100 Backrooms!” was tracked at roughly 17.1M YouTube views.

Why it rippled

The Backrooms has become something closer to a shared folk universe than a single meme. Creators can keep adding levels, rules and challenges without needing an official franchise owner.