“Creators are the new Hollywood,” as YouTube’s chief executive, Neal Mohan, has said, echoing many other media ...

Scroll through your social media feed for just five minutes and you’ll see it: clickbait headlines or images, rage-bait videos designed to spike outrage, and slick ads that don’t look like ads at all.

“In the traditional model, content is the product, and ads are a way to capture value from those who need to rent attention to sell their goods. When creation costs collapse and competition explodes, ...