Valentin Levetti is the co-founder of the YouTube and Twitch channels “Stupid Economics,” which aim to make economics accessible to the general public and are hosted by Arnaud Gantier. He is the guest on the second episode of the second season of “Chemins,” the Médianes podcast.
In this second episode of the second season of the Chemins podcast, we’re joined by Valentin Levetti, co-founder of the YouTube and Twitch channels Stupid Economics. For the past seven years, the channel has been making economics accessible to its more than 273,000 subscribers on YouTube and 13,000 subscribers on Twitch. Opposed to advertising and sponsorships, the channel is now funded by monthly contributions from its audience. How can an independent media outlet grow faster on YouTube? How can transparency be turned into a strength in its business model?
Key Points
- 2023 will be the year Stupid Economics reaches a state of equilibrium. The media outlet originally had no economic ambitions. What were its three major milestones?
“The first milestone was when our videos started getting views. That’s when we realized just how much enthusiasm there was for our free educational content. The second milestone was when we posted a video about the Suez Canal. The video got 50,000 views, which was huge for us at the time. Media outlets picked up our story; the video caused a scandal in Egypt, and the Egyptian government even responded to it. That’s when we realized that YouTube could have a real impact and reach a wide audience. With our videos, we can reach people we wouldn’t necessarily have reached through traditional media channels. So we decided to go all in. Then, in 2018, the CNC offered a grant for web creators. We applied and won the maximum amount of 50,000 euros, which allowed us to grow and fund an entire season of *Stupid Economics*.”
- Stupid Economics is a free media outlet funded by its audience. Subscriptions are optional and flexible: everyone can choose the amount they wish to contribute, either monthly or as a one-time donation.
“We strongly encourage people to make small monthly donations of 1 or 2 euros. Our only marketing strategy is to tell ourselves that if 1% of subscribers support the channel with 1 euro per month, it will remain free for the other 99%. We believe the public has a hard time grasping economic issues because they’re misinformed and these topics are presented very poorly. Creating a paid media outlet focused on the economy would make all of this even less accessible.”
- The average support is €2.70 per month. These contributions represent €3,600 per month, which represents approximately 1,300 people.
"We're very happy about this. We prefer small, ongoing contributions to very large one-time donations, which give us no certainty about the future."
- Stupid Economics recently had to switch to the KissKissBankBank crowdfunding platform following the sudden closure of Utip—the platform the publication had been using until then. It was a real market crash. Yet the publication didn’t suffer any losses.
“People made the transfer in just fifteen days. We’re always worried that some of our supporters might forget they’re giving us one euro a month. That’s when we realize just how much people value the work we do: these subscribers are engaged and always there for us. We’ve even had to send emails telling them not to increase their support, since the crisis is creating a marketing effect—whether we like it or not—where people think we’re going to lose money with the closure of Utip. We have real stability, which is extremely reassuring.”
- Over the course of the entire year, YouTube pays Stupid Economics less than 3,000 euros for ads automatically placed by the platform at the beginning of videos, which amounts to about 6% of the outlet’s revenue.
“We never get to decide which ad will be featured as a pre-roll on our videos. So we’ve thought about removing those ads. But when we choose not to monetize our videos, YouTube promotes us less. Since there’s no conflict of interest between our content and the ads that run, we prefer to keep this source of revenue as a year-end bonus. It’s the only advertising we accept.”
- However, the content on Stupid Economics will never be sponsored.
“As journalists, we refuse to speak out to promote a brand. And if it’s not the journalist who says it, that creates another problem. The same principle applies to the media as a whole. It’s a basic tenet: there must be a very clear separation between the editorial department and the advertising department. In our case, that’s impossible. And in any case, we have absolutely no desire to sell products to our audience.”
- Since its founding seven years ago, the media outlet has published its financial statements, its forecast for the following year, and an explanatory video on its channel at the end of each year.
“It’s part of our vision: since our audience funds our media, they should know how we’re using their money. And this helps shed light on the question of how much it costs to make videos on YouTube. What are the expenses? What does a content creator’s accounting look like? Editing software, licenses for the music and images used, legal fees… This allows us to demonstrate all of this to our audience.”
- The Stupid Economics page on KissKissBankBank states that any form of volunteer work is unacceptable and that the challenge lies in ensuring the team’s long-term sustainability. At the same time, surveys highlight this issue of volunteer work and management within independent media outlets.
« The end never justifies the means. The only people who can take risks on a media outlet must be shareholders and do so with full knowledge of the facts. Conversely, all people who are subordinates — journalists, technicians, editors — must be paid and benefit from collective agreements. A business rests on its human resources. We must take care of them. »
"Chemins" is a podcast produced by Médianes. Season 2 is hosted by Marine Slavitch and directed by Morgan Prudhomme. The sound design is by Nicolas Peiron, and the visual design is by Christelle Perrin.
