This is a preview of Like & Subscribe, my standalone Ankler Media newsletter on the creator economy. I wrote about Alex Cooper’s Unwell deals and why reps are steering talent away and spoke to two Chernin Group partners about the firm’s bet on creator-led empires. I’m natalie@theankler.com
Happy Wednesday! This past weekend I saw The Devil Wears Prada 2 with friends, and we agreed that the original film and its sequel feel like bookends of an era for women in our millennial cohort, particularly those of us who rushed into careers in media only to find the industry already under siege.
When I saw the first movie, I’d just turned down my acceptance to Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism for USC’s Annenberg School. When Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs reveals she’s a Medill grad in the opening moments of the film, my heart thudded in my chest. Had I made the wrong decision?
Two decades later, the answer is clearer. No degree could have insulated me, or anyone, from what came next — the collapse of legacy media’s business models that have upended Hollywood studios, movie theaters and glossy magazines. The only thing that would have made it more realistic is if Andy had started a Substack by the end of the movie.
Which brings me to today’s story: what the next version of a media career — and media company — might actually look like.
Because while Hollywood and publishing are busy shrinking, one corner of the entertainment business has been exploding faster than the Indiana Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell: women’s sports. And now, a trio of well-connected media and creative power players is betting they can build not just content around it, but an entire IP engine.
Former Condé Nast executive Pam Drucker Mann, The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken and actress Jennifer Beals co-founded Run-A-Muck last year. They raised a pre-seed friends-and-family round of funding and are working lean, with a team of less than 10. Today, I’ve got the scoop on their first big swing: a new content vertical called Reign that will tap into the growing audience for women’s sports.
“Women in sports are driving culture,” says Drucker Mann, who presided over the business of Vogue, Vanity Fair and Glamour owner Condé Nast during the era synonymous with The Devil Wears Prada. “There really hasn’t been a media brand that is as dynamic as [these athletes] are, and that’s our objective.”
The plan for Reign involves a slate of film and television projects, as well as digital series and in-person events, which I’ll tell you more about below. But the brand will be centered on a new podcast hosted by Jackie Johnston, the creator better known to her million-plus followers on TikTok and Instagram as Coach Jackie J.
With global women’s sports revenue expected to top $3 billion this year, it’s a good time to be making a bet.
Over at Like & Subscribe, keep reading for the full scoop from Drucker Mann, who leads Run-A-Muck from New York as CEO, on what she’s building with Reign, including:
- Reign’s first slate: a WNBA series, NIL drama and feature film already in motion — and the writers attached
- The audience data driving the bet, including one stat that might surprise you
- The new generation of athletes turning fandom into full-blown media power
- How Coach Jackie J built a following — and why she’s central to this strategy
- Why Run-A-Muck is skipping the slow build and racing straight into scripted
- The real monetization plan: events, big brand dollars and the pro sports calendar
The rest of this column is for paid subscribers to Like & Subscribe, a standalone newsletter dedicated to the creator economy from Ankler Media.
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