Media startupRun-A-Muck isgoing all inonshortstories.
The company, co-founded byCondéNastalum PamelaDruckerMann,is set tolaunchshortstories onitsad-supportedcultureandfashionSubstack,Drafting,accordingto areportfrom The WallStreet Journal.
The movecomes along with the company’sbet thatthe material could be thenextmajor source of intellectual property for film, television,podcastsand other multimedia projects. Theyplan toadaptsuccessful works across multiple platforms.
“Rather than starting with a medium and searching for an audience, we start with the story we want to tell and then determine the format that best serves that story,”DruckerMann told WSJ.
Several notable writers have already signed up to publish on the platform. Among them are Cody Behan — writer of short story “The Decorator,” which is set to be adapted for Netflix— and Abbott Elementary writer and director Brittani Nichols.
Adaptation is not the entire goal of the push into shorter fiction, however.Some stories posted on the platform willsimplyremain in that form.“Not everything we create is destined to become a television series or feature film,” Drucker Mann added.
Drafting, Run-A-Muck’s seven-month-old Substack publication,attracts more than 50,000 monthly readers. Hermès,Monclerand eBay arereportedly amongthe publication’s advertisers — former Wondery and Google sales executive Kimberly Diaz was hired earlier this year as Run-A-Muck’s head of advertising and brand partnerships. With Drafting’s push into short stories, they hope to court a younger audience interested in culture.
The first short story to publish on Drafting will bean 1,800-word story, according to WSJ, and isbased on Showtime’s seriesThe L Word.It’swritten by Run-A-Muck co-founder Ilene Chaiken, who co-created the iconic queer series.
Run-A-Muck also plans to release a podcast this month under the sameDraftingbanner. The firstepisode will feature Chaiken interviewed by another Run-A-Muck co-founder, TheL Word actor Jennifer Beals.
The company recently raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Atreides Management, the investment fund founded by SpaceX backer Gavin Baker.They’lluse the funds to make staff hires, along with audience and intellectual property development.
Combined witha previous$6 million friends-and-family pre-seed round, Run-A-Muck’s valuation currently sits at $80 million.