Rob Greenlee

Liquid Content Era Enables Creators To Become Trusted Media Brands

by Rob Greenlee, CEO/Founder, Trust Factor Lab and Trust Creator Community at M3Linked.com, Host of NewMediaShow.com & Spoken Human

Podcasting’s New Liquid Content Era has growing potential to turn audio and video creators into Trusted Media Brands.

Let’s stop pretending podcasting is still just an audio strategy.

It isn’t.

We are in a major reshuffle right now. The old boundaries around what a podcast is, how it gets discovered, and how creators build momentum are extending fast. What once felt fixed is becoming far more fluid and complicated. That is why I see this as podcasting’s new liquid era, where creators are becoming more than just podcasters.

Many are becoming trusted, personified, or human-centric media brands.

That shift did not happen overnight, but the major platform moves made it impossible to ignore. YouTube pushed podcasting deeper into its video ecosystem. Spotify reinforced video publishing and monetization. Apple pushed even further with a new video podcast experience via HLS streaming inside Apple Podcasts.

“That matters because it signals something bigger than a feature update.“

YouTube changed creator behavior. Spotify and Netflix reinforced the business case.

“Apple Podcasts has now validated that video podcasting via HLS is much closer to the center of gravity in podcasting. None of that means audio stopped mattering. Audio still fits some of the most valuable moments in people’s lives. It still works while driving, walking, working out, commuting, and doing everything else that makes spoken-word media so powerful. Audio still matters deeply.”

Video is not replacing audio in every context, but it is clearly driving much of the momentum, experimentation, audience behavior, and acquisition deals right now. That is why I do not think the smartest framing anymore is audio-first versus video-first.

The smarter framing is to trust first and to focus on content liquidity.
Because in a liquid content era, formats can move. Platforms do change. User behavior does shift. Discovery pathways evolve. But trust is what survives the reshuffle.

That is where new media creators need to up their game.

The goal is not just to publish an audio
The goal is not just to post a video version
The goal is not just to be present on another of many platforms
The real opportunity is to become a trusted media personality brand
That means your show is no longer just an RSS feed. It is a relationship. It has a recognizable point of view or change mission that matters to humans. It is also a repeatable format. It is a body of communications people can follow across audio, video, clips, livestreams, newsletters, search, and community.

And now there is another layer that matters more every month: AI algorithmic content scoring and sharing discovery in LLM’s.

The next phase of creator growth is not only about ranking in traditional search or getting picked up by AI platform algorithms.

To be discoverable inside AI answers, conversational search, and recommendation systems.

“If your content is clear, trusted, well-structured, and consistently published, it has a much better chance of being found, surfaced, and revisited across this new landscape.”

That is also why owned audience relationships are becoming so important.

The next strategic layer for creators is not just public content. It is building private, premium, interactive communities that they control.

Not just followers on rented platforms.
Not just subscribers inside someone else’s ecosystem.
Not just passive audience reach.

“Building spaces where creators own the direct relationship with their audience. Membership communities. Premium groups. Mastermind environments. Private creator circles. Direct audience ecosystems are built around trust, participation, and recurring value.”

Because when a creator builds that kind of community, they are not just publishing content anymore. They are creating a meeting place for direct connections. That is an ongoing experience. The creator is building loyalty, feedback loops, and a deeper business relationship that is far more durable than a view count or a download-and-view number on a large consumption platform the creator does not control the access pathways to.

That changes the economics, too.

Public content can drive awareness
Video can drive discovery
Audio can deepen a habit.

A private community can drive retention, monetization, and direct audience relationships.

That is a much stronger model than relying entirely on platforms you do not control.

And now we need to talk about what comes next.
I believe hybrid human-and-AI creator brands will become a real part of this landscape. Not fake creators replacing people. Not synthetic noise with no soul. I mean human creators extending their voice, expertise, archives, and availability through AI clones that are built the right way.

Done badly, that becomes creepy, misleading, and disposable.
Done well, it becomes powerful.

“A trust-first AI clone should not pretend to be a human when it is not. It should be clearly disclosed. It should reflect the creator’s actual values, body of work, and knowledge. It should be built from authentic source material. It should help audiences access ideas, archives, recommendations, and next steps in ways that extend the human-creator brand rather than diluting it.”

A creator’s human voice remains the center. The human relationship remains the anchor.

But AI can extend availability, responsiveness, discovery, education, and continuity.

In other words, the future is not human or AI, but both. It is trusted human brands with carefully built AI extensions.

Only works if trust comes first. If audiences feel tricked, manipulated, or confused, the brand loses value. But if the AI layer is transparent, useful, aligned, and grounded in the creator’s real voice and expertise, it can become an extension of the relationship rather than a replacement for it.

That is why I think the creators who win in the next chapter will be the ones who know how to build trust across multiple surfaces:

Public platforms
Audio feeds
Video channels
AI discovery layers
Private premium communities and eventually, trust-first AI versions of their own brand.

That is the shift.

We are moving from content creators to trust builders
From podcasters to media brands
From single-format publishing to format flexibility
From a rented reach to an owned relationship
From static content libraries to intelligent, discoverable creator ecosystems
That is not the end of podcasting
That is, podcasting is becoming bigger than its original container.

And from my perspective, that is the real opportunity for creators, experts, and brands right now. In a world where more content will be created by more people and more machines than ever before, trust becomes the filter. Trust becomes the signal.

Trust becomes the value. The question now is not whether you are only a podcaster.

“The question now is whether you are building something people trust enough to follow, join more deeply in a community, and eventually interact with you and your brand.”

“The path is built on a trust-first approach: clear disclosure, authentic source material, useful value for the audience, and strong alignment with the human creator’s real voice and expertise.”

What opportunity is there now for creators?

To become trusted media brands that use public platforms for reach, video for discovery, audio for habit, private communities for ownership, and trust-first AI extensions for scalable audience support.

About the Author
Rob Greenlee is a 2017 Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and Chair, a global new-media leader who bridges podcasting’s human roots and its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard, and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.

Personal note: I used AI tools to help organize this article and hand-edited it; the views, clarifications, responsibility, and industry perspective are mine. I have been working in podcasting and platform adoption for more than two decades, and this article reflects my own position. The original word choice was mine, and so is the clarification.

The Word “Podcast” Is Owned by the Audience Now

By Rob Greenlee

For years, the podcast industry has argued over what a podcast really is.

Is it an RSS feed?
Is it an audio file?
Is it a downloadable media enclosure?
Is it open distribution?
Is it something in Apple Podcasts?

Those definitions still matter, especially to those of us who helped build and protect the open podcasting ecosystem. RSS matters. Creator control matters. Portability matters. Ownership matters.

But here is the uncomfortable truth: The word podcast is no longer owned by the industry. It is now owned by the audience.

The audience does not care nearly as much about the delivery technology as we do. They say they “watched a podcast on YouTube,” “followed a podcast on Spotify,” “saw a podcast clip on TikTok,” or “listened to a podcast in the car.”

They are not thinking about RSS, hosting platforms, download measurement, API delivery, or whether the file was streamed or downloaded.

They are thinking about the show. That is the shift.

To the public, a podcast is increasingly a recurring show with a host, a point of view, a topic, a relationship, and a familiar format. It may be audio. It may be a video. It may be clipped, streamed, summarized, searched, or recommended by an AI system.

This is where the old industry definition starts to break down.

The podcast industry can argue that YouTube shows are not “real podcasts.” But if millions of people call them podcasts, watch them as podcasts, and advertisers buy them as podcasts, then the market is already redefining the word.

That does not mean open podcasting is dead. It means open podcasting has to compete within a much larger media environment.

The danger is obvious. Platforms want to shape the meaning of podcasting around their own business models.

YouTube wants podcasts to look and behave like YouTube.
Spotify wants podcasts inside Spotify.
Apple wants podcasts inside Apple Podcasts.
Social platforms want clips.
AI platforms want structured metadata knowledge and summarized answers.

Each platform pulls the word in its own direction. But the audience is the real force behind the change.

Words follow behavior. Television is no longer just a living room device. Radio is no longer just a local tower.

Podcasting is no longer just an RSS audio file. It is becoming a broader show format.

That means new media creators need to stop building only for the old definition of a podcast and start building for how audiences actually consume media now.

The show is the center.
The RSS feed is infrastructure.
The website is the home base.
YouTube and Spotify are discovery and consumption engines.
Social clips are attention triggers.
Email and community are direct relationships.
AI search is becoming the next discovery layer.

This is the new podcast stack. The biggest mistake would be to fight the audience over the word. The smarter move is to protect the open foundation while accepting the expanded meaning.

Podcasting’s future will not be won by telling people they are using an incorrect term. It will be won by building trusted shows that work across audio, video, social, search, AI, and community.

The word podcast may have started as a technical, open, but narrow standard distribution term. But today, it means something much bigger. It means a trusted show people choose based on what the platform it is consumed on calls it; if a production looks and sounds like a podcast, then that is what they will think it is in their lives.

And that definition now belongs to the audience.

2026: YouTube Becomes the Top of the Creator Funnel

By Rob Greenlee – Get Help Rebooting or Starting a New Show Podcast here

I’ve spent most of my career living at the intersection of podcast creators, platforms, and distribution shifts. I’ve watched “radio becomes podcasting,” “podcasting become integrated into listening and viewing apps,” and “those apps become more algorithmic-based.”

As 2026 unfolds, I see the next reshuffle getting clearer by the month.

RSS-based Distribution Takes Backseat

YouTube is becoming the top of the creator funnel. RSS for mainly audio, but video could be coming to RSS again soon making it the most important third distribution pathways.

That’s not a knock on RSS. It’s actually a compliment, but the podcasting via RSS industry needs to act fast as we have seen iHeartMedia recently announce support for video via RSS. This could be just the beginning, but Apple Podcasts really holds the keys to unlocking video podcast via RSS again.

The funnel is moving upstream to video

The creator journey is increasingly starting in a place where discovery is native, friction is low, and context is immediate. That’s video.

YouTube has become the default “proof of life or human” place for a show as Live shows become that PROOF. It’s where audiences can instantly sample personality, credibility, chemistry, and production value in seconds. It’s where clips or shorts of human created content travel, but clips are becoming more AI generated. It’s where search and recommendations can do the early real connection and trust-building work for you before anyone ever commits to subscribing.

In the past, you could launch audio-first and gradually build momentum across Apple Podcasts and Spotify with consistency and a decent hook. In 2026, the reality is harsher:

New shows will often need to prove themselves on YouTube before they have much of a chance building a meaningful audio-only audience.

Not because audio is dead—but because discovery has changed to prioritize contents ability to hook and hold on to audience attention or watch and listening time.

Audio-only will still be huge… but for a smaller number of big shows grabbing a huge percentage of the available audio listeners.

Let me be clear: RSS audio isn’t going away. Audio still wins in the home, car, on walks, in earbuds at work, and during daily routines. The audience behavior is real, and the habit is deeply embedded.

But the audio “audience gravity” is concentrating into a smaller number of popular legacy audio podcasts, while the new entry point of priority is creating a video show.

In 2026, I expect audio-only shows via RSS to maintain large audiences primarily among a smaller group of already-popular programs—the brands people already know, the legacy hits, and the breakout franchises that have become cultural defaults.

That doesn’t mean new audio shows can’t win. It means the path to winning is changing and is increasingly connected with video too.

RSS becomes the reliable secondary distribution pathway

Here’s the part many people miss: RSS is still the cleanest, most durable distribution layer in media. It’s portable. It’s open. It’s composable. It’s the pathway that can power hundreds of endpoints or consumption apps without locking a creator into one platform’s business logic.

What’s happening is that RSS is shifting into a role that looks more like this:

YouTube drives discovery and “first exposure” and creative discipline to wins with the a
RSS supports loyal consumption, portability, and long-term ownership
Multi-platform publishing becomes standard, not optional

Creators who understand this will stop treating RSS as the “main stage” and start treating it as the infrastructure—the thing that ensures their show exists everywhere their audience wants it.

Video returns to RSS, but through streaming tech

One of the most interesting developments I expect to accelerate is video coming back to RSS again—but not in the old “download a massive video file” way.

The future looks more like streaming:

HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) becomes a more common delivery method for video
Feeds expand into separate audio and video RSS feeds
More platforms and apps begin to support (or re-support) video feeds as streaming becomes easier and more efficient

In other words: RSS evolves from “just downloads” into a smarter routing layer for audio and video.

That matters because it creates a bridge between the algorithmic world (YouTube) and the owned/distributed world (RSS). It gives creators options. It reduces dependency. It increases resilience.

What creators should do now

If you’re launching or rebooting a show heading into 2026, I’d simplify your strategy to this:

Lead with video for discovery. Design your show so it’s instantly watchable and clip-friendly.
Publish audio via RSS for loyalty. Make it easy for fans to consume anywhere.
Prepare for a dual-feed future. Plan for separate audio/video feeds and a workflow that supports both.
Assume multi-platform is the default. Your “show” is the format; platforms are the outlets.

The creators who win in 2026 won’t be the ones arguing “video vs audio.” They’ll be the ones building a system where video finds the audience and RSS keeps the relationship.

And that’s the real shift: discovery is becoming more platform-driven, but trust and retention still belong to the creators who distribute intelligently.

About the Author
Rob Greenlee is a Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and global new media leader who bridges podcasting’s roots with its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” , and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard, and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.

The Truth About Where Podcasting and New Media Really Stand Today

By Rob Greenlee

The truth about podcasting and new media today is clearer yet harder than ever: we’ve crossed a point of no return.

The center of gravity has fully shifted away from legacy media and distribution, old gatekeepers, and the idea that traditional media is the ultimate destination for new media creators.

In reality, the momentum has moved in the opposite direction: legacy media platforms are trying to catch up to the digital creator economy, not the other way around.

Spend a day inside the modern media ecosystem, and you’ll see something undeniable. Audiences now consume content on living-room streaming devices, social interest media platforms, and especially YouTube. They want interactivity, presence, personality, and the feeling of connection that just doesn’t exist in passive formats like cable or traditional TV and broadcast radio. Viewers and listeners want to talk back, participate, react, and feel part of a community. That’s where trust is being built today, and it’s happening at a massive scale.

The real business model of new media creators and podcasting has also changed. The show itself is no longer the final product, it’s the engine. A powerful engine, yes, but one that drives something larger: brands, products, events, memberships, and communities built on trust, interest, and value to the individual. Advertising is still a part of the picture, but it’s no longer the main revenue stream. The most successful creators understand this, and they’re using their shows to build fully formed businesses that extend far beyond creating media content.

At the same time, AI is rushing in fast, bringing both excitement and anxiety. Some people have already replaced their podcast listening time with conversational AI for value and help with life challenges. Others are using AI tools for research, prep, editing, and even creating whole new formats that didn’t exist before. Whether we like it or not, AI is publishing thousands of episodes a week now. It’s here, and it’s reshaping the edges of the digital medium.

“For human creators, this is a moment to double down on what AI can’t replicate: lived experience, emotional nuance, personality, and authenticity. That’s where the long-term value lies.“

The bigger question is whether the long standing traditional business model of podcasting is in decline or broken. The answer depends on your perspective. If you’re dependent entirely on ads and operating with legacy-era cost structures, then yes, the economics will feel like they’re collapsing. But if you’re approaching podcasting the way the modern creator class does lean, diversified, platform-native, and audience-first, there’s more opportunity today than ever.

This shift poses a challenge for legacy traditional broadcast media, but not an impossible one. To adapt, they must rethink the most fundamental assumptions they’ve held for many decades. They need to move away from exclusivity and closed systems and meet audiences where they actually are. They must build brands around real people, not institutions. They need to treat YouTube and social interest platforms as core distribution, not secondary windows. And they must embrace AI strategically not as an entire replacement for human creators, but as a force multiplier that can open up new formats that humans would not create and build efficiencies in the creation process.

Most importantly, legacy cable and radio broadcast media must reclaim the value of trust. Trust and relevance is the currency of the modern new creator economy. It’s personal, it’s intimate, and it’s earned one episode at a time. No amount of technology or scale replaces that.

“The future of podcasting and new media is hybrid, open, global, personality-driven, and increasingly shaped by AI. But at the heart of all of it remains the thing that has always mattered most: the human voice, mattering to your community and the human story, and the human connection.“

And that’s the part of the medium that isn’t going anywhere.

About the Author
Rob Greenlee is a Podcast Hall of Fame inductee and global new media leader who bridges podcasting’s roots with its AI-driven future. As founder of Trust Factor Lab and host of the “New Media Show” , and “Spoken Human”, Rob helps creators start, grow, monetize, and future-proof their content. He’s held leadership roles at Microsoft, Spreaker, Libsyn, StreamYard and PodcastOne, and serves as Chairperson of the Podcast Hall of Fame. Learn more at RobGreenlee.com and join the Trust Factor Lab Creator/Podcast Services.