Why I’m experimenting with Patreon as a news creator in 2026

I did a thing today. I set up a Patreon account for myself.

Part of living the news creator life is establishing multiple income streams, and by multiple, I mean several. When I’m fully settled, I don’t know how many streams it might be.

And, no, I’m not soliciting you.

This is as much a learning journey as it is a revenue one because the state of Patreon in late 2025 isn’t what Patreon was 2 or 3 years ago. This platform is emerging quickly, competing with Substack for talent.

Who knew? I sure didn’t.

But here’s something else I learned today: Patreon was created and is run by Jack Conte, one-half of Pomplamoose, a husband-wife music duo I enjoyed quite a bit in the late 2000s — especially this cover of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.”

And the reason that’s important to me is that Jack is a music creator at his core, as am I. So, I feel a kinship, which makes me trust what he has to say.

All that leading to this: I watched this YouTube video with him and journalist Taylor Lorenz from a few months back about the state of social media and where Patreon is headed.

I’d encourage you to watch it as this isn’t really a recap of the video, but there were a few high points that stuck with me:

• The state and evolution of social media, especially in its short form, is soul-sucking.

• The individual creator’s rise is only beginning, to the detriment of the institution-as-creator.

• Bringing humanity to the creator mix via community will be a differentiator — and that’s where Patreon excels.

• Hopefully I didn’t mishear this part, but Conte said Patreon is working on better discovery within Patreon.

I’ll likely re-watch the video in the coming days, and I’ll be fleshing out my Patreon for weeks, even while I’ve already added a link to it on my TikTok and Instagram channels. My vision is that I’d turn each of my content brands (Oklahoma Memo, Ryan Is That Dude, Ryan Welton Digital and Ryan Welton Music) into communities.

I don’t know how best to do that, whether within a single Patreon or multiple Patreons.

If you’ve had some Patreon success, hit me up.

I’ll document it all here — the good, the bad, the ugly.

Thanks for stopping by!