For the first time, Americans' top choice of consuming the news is social media and app video channels, reminding us that "legacy media" soon will indeed will become only legacy.. https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/06/for-the-first-time-social-media-overtakes-tv-as-americans-top-news-source/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email More from the Nielsen 2025 report: "streaming platforms captured 44.8% of total television viewership, narrowly surpassing the combined 44.2% share of broadcast (20.1%) and cable (24.1%) TV. The shift has been dramatic since Nielsen started tracking this data in 2021: streaming usage is up 71% over four years while cable viewing fell 39% and broadcast dropped 21%. YouTube’s doing victory laps with a record 12.5% share for its fourth consecutive monthly increase—making it bigger than Netflix and any traditional network. Meanwhile free ad-supported services like Pluto TV, Roku Channel, and Tubi now combine for 5.7% of viewing, more than any individual broadcast network."

VICE delves into all of the reasons why documentary popularity keeps on growing, including streamers, and people being nosy: https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-is-the-real-reason-why-documentaries-are-so-popular-now/?utm_source=DOC+NYC&utm_campaign=ce8bbda7ed-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_17_07_49_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d83fd8be6c-ce8bbda7ed-270193496&mc_cid=ce8bbda7ed&mc_eid=0a12c9f805

The documentary called Secret Mall Apartment is doing a very interesting path to self-distribution. Having premiered in SxSW last year, this year they are slowly doing theatrical, city by city, by themselves. I love this slow approach, - and looks like it pays off: they have built the buzz about the doc, and it's filling the seats in the theaters: as much as 800,000$ ! I love observing the new ways of distribution emerging, and filmmakers taking a lead to figure out how to connect with their audiences. Would you watch this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9OCYOD-e9s https://secretmallapartment.com/

Very interesting food for thought, as there are more celebrity documentaries coming up. Is it too much? Is it training audiences to only watch familiar faces in non-fiction? https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/documentary-genre-fading-away-music-1236234300/?utm_source=DOC+NYC&utm_campaign=b56e9b74c4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_17_07_49_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d83fd8be6c-b56e9b74c4-270193496&mc_cid=b56e9b74c4&mc_eid=0a12c9f805 What do you think?

We’d love to learn where you're from, what is your relationship to filmmaking, and what you are working on? What excites you about documentaries? YES, pitches are totally welcome too 👍 Let us learn about you in the comments 👇🏽