Diane Banks, Founder & CEO, Northbank Talent Management
In the 20 years which I’ve worked as a talent agent, we’ve seen a shift from the age of gatekeeper media to the creator economy. Back in 2006, our options were to knock on the doors of commissioners, production companies and book publishers, valiantly trying to convince them to take a punt on a talent of whom nobody had heard and who came with no audience at all. Having spotted, primed and pitched the talent, we effectively then had to put a large part of our trust in someone else for their make-or-break moment.
Now, of course, we have a lot more control. These days we carefully build, and begin to monetise, our talent’s audience online before approaching production companies, book publishers or speaker bureaux – if indeed we decide to pursue those options at all.
Throughout my agenting career, I’ve focused on premium factual talent – scientists, historians, politicians, news journalists – and that was the raison d’être behind Northbank when I founded it in 2018. Northbank’s team tend to have strong academic backgrounds and, although channel monetisation now forms the backbone of our business, the team’s experience spans TV development, book publishing and other parts of the traditional media. This gives us the grounding to manage and grow stand-out factual creators such as YouTube-first astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst, classicist Dr Jess Venner, mathematician Ellie Sleightholm, financial educator Rotimi Merriman-Johnson, and microbiologist Dr Gab Astorga, who was named TikTok Books & Learning Creator of the Year 2025.
The democratisation of media over the last decade, meaning that anyone can broadcast to a global audience, has been fantastic for our industry. However, we’re now seeing a flood of content that may be entertaining and prolific, but whose veracity is increasingly difficult to assess, both by consumers and by brands. In this environment, credibility has become scarce, and scarcity creates value. This is a market opportunity which Northbank is well-placed to address, and on which we’re doubling down.
For most of the twentieth century, public service broadcasters acted as the primary custodians of factual authority. Institutions such as the BBC and Channel 4 built reputations on specialist journalism, blue-chip documentaries and expert-led explanation. For decades, they were the default home for historians, scientists, economists and investigative reporters.
That model is now under pressure. Younger audiences have migrated away from linear television at scale, and the broadcasters have failed to keep up. The BBC has just announced its first “YouTube commissioning brief”. The fact that it’s only doing this in 2026 and that it’s structured as a “commissioning brief” in a world which moves much more quickly suggests that it’s significantly out of step – quite aside from its fixation on content for 18-24 year olds when the fastest growing demographic on YouTube is age 55+.
It’s no surprise, then, that TV advertising revenues have fragmented and real-terms budgets have tightened. Faced with these constraints, broadcasters have been forced to prioritise formats that deliver predictable ratings and repeatability. The consequence has been a retreat from factual programming.
But importantly, this is not because public appetite for intelligent content has diminished, or because advertisers don’t want to partner with it. In a world of geopolitical instability, rapid technological change and economic uncertainty, demand for explanation has arguably increased. A supply gap has opened up – and it’s widening.
This isn’t a moral argument; it’s a market observation. When content is abundant, attention becomes cheap. When verification is rare, trust becomes valuable. Audiences increasingly struggle to answer a basic question: who knows what they’re talking about?
The creator economy is maturing. The first phase rewarded personality, lifestyle and entertainment. Reach and relatability were the primary currencies. Today, platforms are increasingly being used as search engines for knowledge. People turn to YouTube, podcasts and newsletters not just to be entertained, but to understand the world. Simultaneously, brands are increasingly seeking controlled, brand-safe contexts and long-term partnerships rather than one-off impressions.
This has given rise to a new category: the expert creator. These are individuals with genuine domain expertise – academics, journalists, practitioners – who are capable of translating complex ideas for broad audiences. At Northbank, we’re seeing a demonstrable up-tick in the value of this kind of content and a widening of the kinds of brand which want to work with our clients. The other aspect of this IP is that it is usually evergreen: a piece of content about the Roman Empire or thermodynamics can be monetised now, and again five or even ten years from now.
Yet many of these experts remain under-supported. They often lack production infrastructure, editorial guidance or commercial strategy. Conversely, many scaled creator businesses lack depth, rigour or longevity. The opportunity as we see it lies in bridging that gap: professionalising expert content without diluting its credibility.
All of this has implications for how talent is represented and supported. Traditional agency models, built around transactional deals and short-term commissions, are poorly suited to this new environment.
Backing expert talent today means thinking like a publisher as well as an agent. It requires editorial judgement, long-term IP strategy and a clear view of how knowledge can travel across platforms, formats and revenue streams. It means building assets that compound over time rather than chasing algorithmic spikes.
As traditional broadcast institutions weaken, new ones will emerge. They will not look like twentieth-century broadcasters, but they will perform a similar function: curating knowledge, setting standards and earning trust.
Expert-led, digitally native talent is becoming a new institutional layer – one that sits between the chaos of the open internet and the constraints of legacy media. At Northbank we’re investing heavily in this shift, and through that, helping to shape the next decade of factual storytelling.
