How He Makes $140k+ Writing About Video Games

Stephen Totilo has spent 20 years reporting in the video game industry, working at MTV, Kotaku and Axios. Francis and Stephen discuss his recent transition to independent journalism and how he's built a stable and successful newsletter product, support entirely by his readers. __ open.video lets you host your videos on your own domain, under your own brand — so you control the channel, the data, and the direct connection to your viewers. Try it out at https://open.video __ Stephen Totilo - Game File: https://www.gamefile.news - Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stephentotilo.bsky.social - X: https://x.com/stephentotilo - Threads: https://www.threads.com/@stephentotilo __ Timestamps 00:00 Introducing Stephen Totilo 01:17 Reporting and criticism. 07:10 Transitioning to independent journalism 13:15 Stories that generated the most growth 18:25 No clickbait — building with integrity 29:00 Pricing yourself as an independent journalist 37:29 The difficulties of expanding a media business 51:50 Passionate about helping other journalists