Winning Gen Z: Masters of the Feed on Strategy (and Why a Post’s First 10 Minutes Matter)
Lucy Blakiston, founder of shit you should care about, and Pubity Group CEO Kit Chilvers tell me about fan-first strategies and the metric that beats vitality
This is a preview of Like & Subscribe, my standalone Ankler Media newsletter on the creator economy. I wrote about the M&A wave coming in influencer marketing, Famous Birthdays’ bid to be “IMDb for creators,” whether CNN Creators can compete with top newsfluencers, and the Golden Globes podcast award mess. I’m natalie@theankler.com
When I graduated from college in 2010, the country was recovering from a recession hangover, and everyone seemed to have opinions about how millennials like me would make our way through the world. We were entitled at work, responsible for the decline of cable and (thanks to all that avocado toast) still relying on our parents for financial support. Flash forward 15 years and I’m pleased to report that the headlines have moved on from millennials.
Now we’re all preoccupied with Gen Z, whose oldest members aren’t yet 30 and whose youngest just became teenagers. Zoomers, by the headlines, are undisciplined at work, responsible for the decline of moviegoing and (thanks to expensive experiences like concerts and trips) saddled with debt. There may be seeds of truth in many of these generalizations — and young people today do consume media differently than the generations that came before, as The Ankler’s Matthew Frank has done an excellent job charting — but Gen Z’s tastes, habits and aspirations are more nuanced than they’re given credit for, as I explored recently with two very informed sources.
Last week at Web Summit Lisbon, the annual gathering of more than 70,000 tech, media and finance professionals, I sat down with Kit Chilvers and Lucy Blakiston, two twentysomething experts at connecting with Gen Z. As the co-founder and CEO of Pubity Group, Chilvers reaches an audience of more than 2 billion on Instagram and other social media channels with brands devoted to feel-good news and memes. Blakiston, meanwhile, has built an audience of more than 4 million for her news brand shit you should care about, including a newsletter that has over 500,000 subscribers.
Gen Z’s most popular platforms are Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, in that order, according to the 2025 Spout Social Index. And young people increasingly get their news on social media, a trend I unpacked last month with two top “newsfluencers” working today. No surprise, Chilvers and Blakiston both built thriving social-first platforms that synthesize and distribute unique takes on the news.
Chilvers, 25 and based in London, started Pubity as an Instagram-first brand when he was a teen. He focuses on positive stories about current events and pop culture (told using eye-catching visuals). Blakiston, 28 and from New Zealand, uses her daily newsletter to give readers a blunt assessment of world news (with a dash of Harry Styles appreciation). She’s been reassessing her Instagram strategy after the platform removed some of her posts. (Keep reading for her full assessment of Instagram owner Meta — she doesn’t mince words!)
Though their approaches vary, Chilvers and Blakiston rely on the same foundational principle for reaching their generation: “When I was creating Pubity, I was actually just creating content for myself,” says Chilvers. Adds Blakiston, “It’s really easy to reach Gen Z when you are Gen Z.”
For all the rest of us, keep reading for four key takeaways (you can also watch the full video below the paywall).
You can read what Chilvers and Blakiston told me everyone gets wrong about Gen Z — and how to fix it — over at Like & Subscribe, where I have:
The platform playbook: How to grow on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube without letting their algorithms warp your voice or mission
Why inbox > feed: The surprising channel outperforming social for real loyalty — and why Gen Z still opens email
The metric that matters now: The one signal Chilvers tracks that beats likes, comments and even follows
Audience over algorithms: How to build a brand that feels personal without turning yourself into the product
The new truth about virality: Why “going viral” is rarer, less meaningful — and no longer the goal
RIP monoculture: Why Blakiston says the internet’s splintering is good — and what that means for anyone trying to reach young audiences
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