How Colin and Samir Turned Creator Interviews Into a Media Business

By the end of 2019, Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry were close to giving up on their YouTube business. It lost $18,000 that year, and freelance production projects kept the channel running. In early 2020, a one-year brand ambassador contract with Samsung gave them the stability to focus on their content. By 2026, they had built a creator media business around a weekly YouTube show, The Publish Press newsletter with more than 130,000 subscribers, paid courses on creator monetization, and Press Publish LA, a sold-out summit on the FOX Studio Lot in Los Angeles.

Building and Selling The Lacrosse Network

Chaudry founded The Lacrosse Network in 2012, soon after college, aiming to build a lacrosse version of the NFL Network. He had no outside funding and worked from his parents' bedroom. To cover costs, his team did branding, design, and social media work for a clothing line owned by his family.

In Boulder, Rosenblum was working 40 hours a week at a hotel front desk. He filmed the University of Colorado lacrosse team on a used camera for a series called Club Ball, which drew 20,000 to 50,000 views per video. Chaudry discovered Rosenblum's work and invited him to Los Angeles for a three-month internship.

On June 4, 2014, Whistle Sports acquired The Lacrosse Network, which had more than 210,000 YouTube subscribers and about 2.3 million monthly views. The pair stayed at Whistle until 2016, when they left to launch the Colin and Samir channel.

Samsung Signs a One-Year Deal

The new channel earned little at first. The founders paid for it with production work for creators such as Dude Perfect and Yes Theory. By late 2019, they were weighing other jobs.

In early 2020, Samsung signed them to a one-year brand ambassador contract. The income gave them room to rethink the channel, and they began a weekly show on how YouTube creators build audiences, produce content, earn revenue, and run their businesses. Interviews with creators such as MrBeast covered production costs, staffing, audience growth, and monetization.

The Publish Press

In May 2021, the founders launched The Publish Press, a newsletter on creator economy news. Their long-form interviews and analysis took days to produce, and a newsletter let them publish several times a week. It started on Substack and moved to beehiiv after reaching about 20,000 subscribers.

In February 2022, Chaudry told Nathan Barry that the business cost $60,000 to $65,000 a month to run. Brand sponsorships brought about 95% of revenue. The channel had earned $107,000 from 107 million views in 2021, and about ten people worked with the business.

In December 2022, the channel reached one million subscribers while the founders were onstage at VidSummit. Their YouTube team included three editors, a production manager, and a script researcher alongside the founders. The Publish Press had a general manager, a business development lead, a writer, and an editor-in-chief, supported by its publishing partner, Smooth Media. The team moved from a 1,000-square-foot studio into a two-story studio and office totaling 3,000 square feet. YouTube ads paid $268,000 that year.

Colin and Samir Enter the Creator Education Business

In December 2023, the creator marketing company Whalar announced The Lighthouse, membership campuses for professional creators planned for Venice and Brooklyn. Rosenblum and Chaudry became joint chairs of its Creator Council, which reviews membership applications. Annual membership was set at about $5,750.

In January 2024, they announced Creator Startup, a live course built with Kajabi that ran for 30 days and cost $1,797. They spent about 18 months on the curriculum, hired a dedicated team member, and worked with an outside agency, Course Studio. The first cohort of 70 students brought in just under $100,000, and Chaudry told Digiday in February that the course had yet to cover its development costs. He projected that brand partnerships would make up 50% to 60% of 2024 revenue, YouTube ads about 10%, and speaking, consulting, creative projects and courses about 30%.

The long interviews suited television screens. In 2023, the channel's long-form episodes drew about 39 million views and 16.6 million watch hours, and 31% of long-form viewing came from connected TVs. Shorts drew another 61 million views that year and paid $3,300.

Press Publish Comes to Brooklyn

On September 4, 2025, the founders hosted Press Publish NYC in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The one-day summit brought together more than 400 creators, production professionals and executives. Sponsors included Microsoft Copilot, Adobe, YouTube and Spotify. The Publish Press team wrote that the event sold out after three newsletter sends. The newsletter went out 167 times in 2025 and recorded about 6 million opens.

On May 28, 2026, Press Publish LA brought more than 550 creators and media executives to the FOX Studio Lot. YouTube and Google Gemini were the title sponsors.

The Business Beyond the Content

The interesting part of Colin and Samir's business is that its most valuable opportunities may have little to do with YouTube advertising. Their videos attract an audience of creators and media professionals, but the relationships built through those videos support a much broader business. A creator watching an interview might become a newsletter subscriber, purchase a course, or attend a conference. These businesses share a distribution advantage, but their economics, operating requirements, and measures of success are different.

A focused media brand develops a deeper understanding of its market with every interview, article, and audience interaction. That knowledge can reveal commercial opportunities that are difficult for outsiders to identify. The business's long-term value depends on how effectively its owners turn those insights into products and services customers are willing to pay for.

Colin and Samir spent years developing an audience of creators, production professionals, and media executives. Their interviews gave them direct access to the industry's challenges, business models, and emerging opportunities. That understanding shaped their expansion into The Publish Press, education, and live conferences, each serving a different market need.

The commercial advantage comes from having an established distribution channel and direct relationships with potential customers. For media brands, the opportunity is to use the knowledge accumulated through publishing to identify adjacent businesses with genuine customer demand. Audience questions, advertiser relationships, and industry conversations can reveal where customers need specialized information, training, or access to other professionals. The challenge is determining which opportunities justify the investment and can generate attractive returns.

See you next week.

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