7:49How Ariel Helwani Is Building an Independent Media Empire
From My First Million · Published Jul 5, 2022 · Watch on YouTube
TL;DR
Ariel Helwani explains his post-ESPN media business: he has multiple partnerships (Vox Media, The Ring, Spotify, Substack, his own YouTube channel) with an LLC so he is not a full-time employee anywhere. His biggest current revenue is Vox Media paying him to host The MMA Hour—a show he created but does not own.
Key insights
- Helwani’s biggest revenue driver is Vox Media (for The MMA Hour), a show he does not own, yet he considers himself independent because he partners with multiple companies rather than being a single em
- He deliberately structured his career as a “Chinese menu” of deals, getting all parties (Vox, The Ring, Spotify, Substack, his YouTube) to “play nicely together” — a negotiation process he found more
- His own YouTube channel (where he posts weekly interviews outside MMA) is currently not about viewer numbers; he does it for “nachas” (fulfillment/joy) and to prove he can interview anyone, from athle
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