JANUARY 29, 2026

PUBLISHER INSIDER

💎 EXCLUSIVE

We’ve opened a WhatsApp community for publishers and it’s growing fast

We’ve launched a private WhatsApp group called Publisher in a Box Community!

It started small but the group’s filling up fast, and the conversations are better than we expected. It’s all publishers of all sizes - discussing anything from content monetization to running traffic and dealing with Facebook.

If you’ve been following our X account, you already know the type of stuff we talk about. We’ve helped a lot of publishers directly through our X account and consulting, and this is an even more direct way to trade industry hacks and tips.

It’s FREE and we're all in there.

👉 Join here​

💡 Industry News

Meta dropped its Q4 numbers and they’re HUGE

Meta added 40M users in one quarter, pushing it to 3.58B daily active users across FB, IG, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads. That’s nearly half the planet opening a Meta app every day. Revenue followed the same story. $59.9B in Q4 alone, $201B for the year. Holiday ads hit hard, brands spent big, and Meta captured it. As usual.

This is why Facebook can afford to pay creators more, roll out bonuses, fund AI, push new monetization programs, and experiment aggressively without blinking. When you’re generating this kind of cash, you don’t tighten but you expand.

➡️ Read the full article​

Meta Creator Marketplace now auto-shows influencers following you

Meta has just updated Creator Marketplace and it’s a big one. You can now see a full list of influencers who already follow your brand. And this used to cost real money. If you’re on desktop, go to Meta Ads Manager > Engage Audience > Creator Marketplace and check it.

Not everyone has access yet. Officially, Meta says it’s still testing and only live for Instagram in the US. But we’re already seeing it surface on Facebook accounts too, which tells you where this is going next.

For publishers and brands, this is simple math. People who already follow you convert better, collaborate easier, and cost less. Expect this to roll out wider, and expect FB to plug it deeper into ads and partnerships.

➡️ Check out the source​

Meta now lets Pages rename their Top Fan badges

Meta is rolling out the ability for Pages to customize the name of their Top Fan badge. When prompted, eligible Pages can reserve a custom badge name, and once the feature officially launches, top fans will get a notification asking them to accept it.

Badges show up in comments, which then drive distribution. Named badges turn casual fans into repeat commenters. Repeat commenters turn into reach. Reach turns into money. Meta is clearly pushing Pages to build identity-based communities. If your fans feel like they’re part of something, they engage more. Period.

Threads just passed X on mobile

Threads is pulling 141.5M daily mobile users, while X is at 125M. This didn’t happen because Threads is “cooler.” It happened because Meta plugged it straight into Facebook and Instagram and let the machine do what it does best: push content at scale. Mobile habits followed. Daily usage followed.

X still wins on the web, no question. About 145M daily web visits vs Threads’ single-digit millions. But the future isn’t desktop. It’s mobile.

Here’s the part publishers should care about: Threads' growth strengthens Facebook. Meta is rebuilding a full-stack content loop - FB for reach and monetization, IG for discovery, Threads for conversation. All feeding each other. If you’re publishing on Facebook, you’re riding the same distribution engine that just pushed Threads past X on mobile.

➡️ Read the full article​

YouTube will soon let creators make Shorts using AI versions of themselves

Soon, you’ll be able to make Shorts using your own AI likeness - face, voice, the whole thing. You don’t show up, your avatar does. Neal Mohan says Shorts are already pulling 200 BILLION views a day, and this is how they plan to scale that even harder.

One creator, infinite output. Add AI clips, AI stickers, auto-dubbing, AI music. YouTube is building a factory. They’re also rolling out likeness protection so nobody steals your face without permission, because yes, that was coming fast.

FB has been moving the same direction for a while. AI Reels, auto-translation, remixing, bonus stacking, distribution boosts. Different tools, same goal: more short-form at scale. And they’ll pay the creators who can keep up.

➡️ Read the full article​

X is about to start slapping labels on edited images

Elon just teased a new move on X: edited images may start getting flagged as “manipulated media.” The message is simple: X wants to call out altered images instead of deleting them. Cropped clips, edited photos, AI tweaks - they won’t be taken down, but they will be labeled.

Details are thin on purpose. We don’t know yet how strict it’ll be, what counts as “edited,” or how disputes work. But we’ve seen this before on FB: aggressive AI labels, overreached, mislabeled real photos, then they had to walk it back to softer “AI info” tags. TikTok followed, ow X is stepping in.

Big picture: platforms are done pretending media is either “real” or “fake.” Everything gets tagged. Context over removal. Labels over bans. For publishers and creators, this means one thing — original visuals and clean edits matter more than ever. If your content needs heavy manipulation to land, expect friction.

➡️ Read the full article

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