Inside The Daily Mail’s creator-led content playbook

So far, creator-led content has generated on average between 250,000 and 300,000 views, which is above the average of their traditional social channels (Daily Mail and Mail Sport), according to the publisher without providing specifics. And they’ve attracted branded partnerships and sponsorship opportunities, though DMG declined to provide financial details or name exact brand names.

Publishers like DMG Media are pushing into the creator space, but with their own twist: a controlled, in-house model that puts creators on payroll — blending personality-led content with the structure, consistency and brand safety of traditional editorial.

“We are ambitious that this will become a significant part of DMG Media,” Nick Moar, head of new media at DMG Media, told Digiday. “We are constantly testing and iterating, but the strategy is set: social and new media publishing business across multiple passion points and genres, all powered by creators.”

The creator initiative forms part of a broader strategic push across DMG Media’s two, six-month-old NewMedia and Creator Media social-publishing arms to expand into scalable, audience-driven content and unlock new revenue opportunities.

DMG Media joins a string of media companies — including CNN, Yahoo, The Washington Post, Future and Bustle Digital Group — building their own creator networks to reach younger audiences and attract new advertisers. The push reflects a broader shift among publishers to build closer ties with creators as platforms like YouTube and TikTok continue to dominate attention, particularly among younger audiences.

One in five Americans regularly get their news from social media, per a recent Pew Research Center study. At the same time, the rise of creators is pushing news toward more personality-driven formats, often making traditional media brands feel less relevant and engaging by comparison, according to the Reuters Institute’s 2026 media and tech report.

Around 70 percent of publisher respondents fear that creators are pulling audiences away from publisher content, per the same study. That’s a threat DMG Media, which counts Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline within its portfolio, wants to be ahead of. 

And with advertiser spend in the U.S. creator economy alone hitting an estimated $37 billion, per the IAB’s 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend report, DMG Media wants to build its own original IP with creators to attract potential brand partnerships. 

“As referral traffic declines in a more zero-click, AI-driven environment, publishers need to own attention within platforms, and this is a clear move in that direction,” said Abigail Niziankiewicz, vp of strategic media investment at media buying agency Mediassociates.

In-house creator model

Moar told Digiday the goal is to build a network of deeply engaged social channels and audiences across different verticals, powered by recognizable creators.

Some creators were brought in having already built loyal social followings independently, like Prashan Leigh, whose man-on-the-street interviews earned him nearly 20,000 followers on TikTok. Leigh now mostly does street interviews and some branded campaigns for DMG.

Others, like Mimi Yates, have journalistic backgrounds and were hired after a successful internship and screen test. Yates is creating daily news content, alongside the just-released Underground series, which explores undereported issues affecting young people in the U.K. through written reporting and TikTok videos. 

Yates covers topics like Britain’s working homeless, illegal fight clubs, and more. “It’s built specifically for younger audiences, combining strong reporting with on-the-ground storytelling,” Moar said.

Yates and Leigh’s content is published under Mail-branded social channels and they’re included in daily morning meetings where they discuss agendas and pitch content with leads from DMG’s editorial teams.

“It’s a very fluid, open process,” said Moar, though he stressed the creators’ ideas are often pursued. “The best ideas come from people who are plugged into the communities, plugged into their topic, or plugged into people in their age group who can pick up content that really resonates.”

The new venture launched specialist channels focused on gaming like (The Respawn), entertainment (The Spotlight), and personal finances (This is Money), the latter netting 200,000 followers in just a few months. In the six months since launch, the New Media and Creator Media teams have grown to around 100 people, with 25-30 of them producing original content across the Daily Mail’s channels. 

DMG is monitoring view-through rates, watch times and engagement rates as metrics indicative of successful creator-led content. Moar flagged three creator-led formats as an example of the average views they’ve come to expect: Street Talks (public interviews), Headlines (explainer format), and How The World Watches (worldwide soccer content), all of which average between 250,000 to 350,000 views per video. 

“We test a format 7-10 times and iterate on it,” Moar said. “It depends on the channel, but we want it to be performing about the channel average.” The average for Daily Mail’s main account videos are around 250,000 views, while Mail Sport sits at around 200,000. 

Lately, Moar says they’ve become increasingly more focused on shares and saves on Instagram. 

“We’ll tweak phrasings in the caption to encourage people to share it widely or bookmark it, because that sends positive signals to the platform,” Moar explained.

Moar wants to gradually increase the volume of creator content published daily from the 10-20 currently produced, though he wouldn’t specify by how much. 

“I think platforms are going to continue to favor originality, so that’s what we’re going to focus on,” he said. “It’s obviously more attractive commercially, too.”

Kerstin Hasse, initiative lead at International News Media Organization, says this push is the Daily Mail’s attempt to bring journalism where audiences are. “The fear has always been that meeting audiences on social platforms means compromising what makes journalism valuable. In-housing creators under an editorial umbrella is one answer to that fear,” she said, adding that publishers will need to strategize around retaining those creators.

Advertisers want to reach audiences directly in-feed

DMG has over 160 million followers across all of its channels and between 6 and 7 billion monthly video videos across social platforms, according to the publisher. Its TikTok news account has just over 26 million followers.

Media buyers can see the potential. “This feels like a smart diversification play — both for Daily Mail and for brands looking to reach audiences directly in-feed,” Niziankiewicz said.

The publisher launched its This is Money social channel last October in partnership with U.K. client Nationwide Bank. “It grew to 200,000 followers in about four or five months, that’s one of our larger activations — launching a whole channel with a brand,” said Moar, who declined to share the financial agreement.

Moar also referenced smaller branded content packages done with partners, like game developer Supercell’s two-video activation with The Respawn. “There’s a whole range of deal sizes,” he said. A Supercell-sponsored TikTok on The Respawn’s official account went viral last October with over 11 million views and more than 100,000 likes.

This model works on DMG’s more mainstream channels as well. A recent Daily Mail TikTok campaign with fashion retailer Primark put Yates on the ground in a play on the traditional reporter format, delivering info about a “major find.” As of the time of writing, the video has 1.3 million views and over 30,000 likes.

As marketing budgets increasingly favor the creator space, brands may want to see consistent results before investing heavily across publishers’ traditional and new media channels — or pulling spend from an established creator. Niziankiewicz said that this play may apply creator-style formats and recognizable talent to the Daily Mail’s content, but it’s still “fundamentally different” from working with independent creators, who bring their own hyper-engaged audience to the bargaining table.

“We’d need to see that this drives meaningful engagement and can scale efficiently with paid, particularly compared to native creator content on platforms like TikTok. If it can deliver both reach and engagement, it becomes a much more compelling line item,” Niziankiewicz said.