Beyond the Headlines

And What the Creator Economy Still Isn't Talking About

By Joseph Haecker, Editor-in-Chief, Only Fans Insider Magazine

For years, conversations about OnlyFans have been trapped between two extremes. On one side, critics portray it as evidence of society's moral decline. On the other, supporters celebrate it as a revolutionary path to financial independence and personal autonomy. The New Yorker's recent feature, Up Close with OnlyFans Creators, breaks away from that simplistic framing. Rather than treating creators as stereotypes, Jennifer Wilson and photographer Katy Grannan present them as complex individuals with unique motivations, ambitions, hardships, and aspirations. It is one of the most thoughtful mainstream portrayals of creators that I have seen in recent years.

As Editor-in-Chief of Only Fans Insider Magazine, I spend nearly every day talking with creators from around the world. I have interviewed newcomers making their first hundred dollars online, veterans earning millions, agencies managing hundreds of creators, photographers, lawyers, payment providers, software companies, educators, and founders building the infrastructure behind the creator economy. Reading The New Yorker piece, I found myself nodding repeatedly—not simply because it humanized creators, but because it unintentionally pointed toward a much bigger conversation the industry still hasn't fully had.

That conversation isn't really about sex.

It's about entrepreneurship.

The Story Isn't OnlyFans. The Story Is Small Business.

One of the most striking things about The New Yorker article is the diversity of people featured. A former ICU nurse. A welder battling cancer. A grandmother from Alabama. A nonbinary dog walker. Artists, musicians, actors, construction workers, influencers, gamers, immigrants, veterans, and parents. Each found their way to OnlyFans through a completely different path.

The common thread wasn't sexuality.

It was opportunity.

What the article demonstrates—perhaps without intending to—is that OnlyFans has quietly become one of the world's largest platforms for accidental entrepreneurs. These individuals didn't wake up wanting to build subscription businesses. Most simply needed another income stream, greater flexibility, financial security, or more control over their lives. In many cases, OnlyFans became the vehicle through which they unknowingly launched businesses.

That distinction matters.

Because once someone becomes an entrepreneur, their challenges change dramatically.

Success Doesn't End With Opening an Account

Popular media often frames success on OnlyFans as a question of content. Better photos. Better videos. Better lighting. Better editing. Better AI tools.

But after speaking with hundreds of creators, I rarely find content quality to be the limiting factor.

Most creators don't fail because they can't create.

They struggle because they suddenly become responsible for marketing, branding, customer acquisition, pricing, retention, analytics, public relations, legal compliance, taxes, reputation management, partnerships, negotiation, community building, platform diversification, and long-term business planning—all without ever being taught any of those skills.

Imagine opening a restaurant without understanding advertising.

Or launching a clothing company without knowing what a brand is.

That's the reality for many creators.

Every Creator Is Really Running Five Businesses

The outside world sees someone uploading content.

Behind the scenes, they're operating multiple businesses simultaneously.

They're a media company producing daily content.

They're a customer service department answering messages around the clock.

They're a sales organization converting followers into paying subscribers.

They're a personal brand navigating public perception.

And increasingly, they're technology managers trying to stitch together dozens of disconnected platforms just to keep their business operating.

That workload doesn't appear in revenue screenshots shared on social media.

But it's where most creators spend the majority of their time.

The Pandemic Didn't Create OnlyFans. It Accelerated a Shift.

The New Yorker correctly notes that the pandemic dramatically accelerated OnlyFans' growth. Overnight, millions of people became comfortable working through webcams, accepting virtual interactions, and monetizing digital relationships.

But COVID didn't invent the creator economy.

It accelerated a much broader transition already underway.

For decades, careers depended on institutions. Record labels, publishers, studios, broadcasters, newspapers, agencies, and employers controlled access to audiences. Digital platforms lowered those barriers. Suddenly individuals could build audiences independently.

OnlyFans simply extended that logic into subscription-based creator businesses.

Instead of relying on advertisers, creators could monetize relationships directly.

That's an incredibly powerful shift.

But it also means creators inherited every responsibility those institutions used to handle.

The Infrastructure Gap

This is where I believe the industry has its biggest blind spot.

Platforms compete fiercely over monetization tools.

AI messaging.
Better payments.
Video hosting.
Analytics.
Scheduling.
Automation.

All valuable innovations.

But very little attention is being given to the broader infrastructure entrepreneurs need to build sustainable businesses.

Traditional industries already have this infrastructure.

Real estate agents have associations, publications, conferences, awards, certifications, marketing vendors, PR firms, networking groups, continuing education, software ecosystems, and trusted review platforms.

Doctors have journals.
Lawyers have bar associations.
Restaurants have Michelin Guides.
Technology companies have TechCrunch.

Creators are only beginning to develop comparable ecosystems.

Discoverability Is the Real Crisis

Creators constantly hear that success depends on consistency.

Post more.
Engage more.
Reply faster.
Go live.
Create reels.
Upload shorts.
Follow trends.

Yet most creators are attempting to grow businesses on platforms that frequently limit, restrict, or remove their visibility because of the nature of their work.

That's an extraordinarily difficult position.

Imagine asking a local restaurant to advertise while simultaneously preventing customers from seeing the menu.

That's the reality many adult creators experience every day.

It's difficult to build predictable businesses when your visibility depends on algorithms you don't control.

Reputation Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage

One aspect I particularly appreciated in The New Yorker piece was its refusal to reduce creators to sensational headlines.

Instead, readers meet people.

Parents.
Artists.
Patients.
Friends.
Neighbors.
Business owners.

That shift is incredibly important.

The creator economy is maturing. As it matures, reputation becomes increasingly valuable. Articles, interviews, podcasts, conference appearances, awards, professional profiles, and educational contributions all help creators build credibility beyond individual subscription platforms.

A creator's business should never exist entirely inside one website.

It should exist across the internet.

Why the Ecosystem Matters

This realization is ultimately what led me to launch Only Fans Insider Magazine and later expand into additional creator publications and Sxgram.

The goal was never simply to publish interviews.

It was to begin building the surrounding ecosystem that creators have historically lacked.

Media coverage helps creators establish authority.

Industry articles improve discoverability.

Awards recognize meaningful achievements.

Business interviews help creators tell stories beyond promotional posts.

Social platforms designed specifically for creators reduce dependence on networks that may restrict their visibility.

None of these tools replace subscription platforms.

They complement them.

The Future Will Belong to Business Owners

One line from The New Yorker stayed with me long after I finished reading.

Many of the featured creators weren't trying to become internet celebrities.

They simply wanted better lives.

That's an important distinction.

Celebrity is unpredictable.

Business can be built.

The next generation of successful creators won't necessarily be those producing the most content. They'll be the ones who understand branding, partnerships, customer retention, owned audiences, diversification, community, intellectual property, and long-term strategy.

In other words, the creators who stop thinking like influencers and start thinking like founders.

Just Some Final Thoughts

The New Yorker deserves credit for helping readers see OnlyFans creators as multidimensional people rather than headlines or stereotypes. Humanizing creators is an important step toward a more informed conversation about the modern creator economy.

The next step, however, is recognizing that these creators are not simply producing content—they are building businesses, often without the support systems that exist in nearly every other industry. If the creator economy is going to mature, it will need more than better monetization tools. It will need stronger media, trusted professional networks, educational resources, marketing infrastructure, and platforms that help creators build durable businesses rather than simply chase the next viral moment.

The future of the creator economy won't be defined by who uploads the most content. It will be defined by who builds the strongest ecosystem around the people creating it.