The media landscape is ever-evolving, and no one knows that better than Kyle Anfernee.
Source: Casey Diggs / The Neighborhood Talk
Evolving is something that comes naturally for the Maryland native. When Anfernee launched The Neighborhood Talk he had been booted from his old job at The Shade Room and was unsure about his future. Things became clear however when he created and founded TNT and people familiar with his name, pushed “follow” on his blog. Now with 1.8 million followers eager to consume content during a nonstop news cycle, Kyle is telling BOSSIP about his beginnings and his daily dealings with celebs (and their stans). The CEO also speaks on the snackable-style news content that dominates social media and how it affects his day-to-day dealings and shares his hopes for the future evolution of his uber-popular platform.
BOSSIP: The Neighborhood Talk has grown so much, but I don’t know if people know your origin story and that you studied journalism. Tell us about your background.
I went to Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and I majored in broadcast journalism. So I really saw myself as a news reporter being on Fox5 News and telling y’all that somebody got murdered on the corner or that I’m at a school helping kids with a fundraiser. So I never saw myself being a writer, I actually I didn’t like writing in college. I hated it, I didn’t think it was for me at all.
But I waited until my senior year at Pepperdine to look for an internship. And you know when you’re in that last semester, it’s like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to get this internship credit because I need to graduate.’ So I just ended up stumbling across The Shade Room on Instagram, but it was very, very, very small. But what I liked about it was that I didn’t have to go anywhere, it was remote. So I was like, ‘Okay, this is a cool thing.’ So I reached out to Deborah who was the editor at the time there, and I just literally DMed her and said, ‘Hey, are y’all looking for interns?’ And then I was in like that. So it wasn’t really much of a hiring process, I just DMed and I got in real early, which was good.
So you eventually left and started your own platform on Instagram. What was it like getting The Neighborhood Talk off the ground and going from zero to 1.8 million followers?
It was nerve-wracking because I didn’t know how it was going to go or how stable it was going to be financially for me. When I started it, I only had about $3K in my account for my severance package for my previous job. So that was basically all I had, and I just kind of went by the grace of God. And when I started it, we got, 50 K or 80 K followers in a month. A lot of it came from my previous job because I had built a name for myself, which was a good thing because had I not done that, I wouldn’t have been able to grow. So I’m blessed I worked with her [at The Shade Room]. So I don’t have anything negative to say because it did help me to do what I do now over here in a way.
What is it like running The Neighborhood Talk daily? I can imagine you go through some of the same things we do at BOSSIP with take-down notices.
Yeah, it can be a little stressful. Like you said, it’s just never knowing what’s going to come down or what’s going to be an issue for Instagram. Over the weekend, GloRilla tweeted, “I would’ve shot Jolene.”
So we posted that tweet, but Instagram took our tweet down, but we’ll look on other page and see the same tweet and then we’ll be like, ‘Well why are we being targeted?’ So it’s just a never-ending game of content being taken down that their system doesn’t understand, but our audience understands. So that’s stressful, just trying to make sure the page stays up and nothing happens to it. And also just, we look for tea. We have little meetings and stuff like that daily, but for the most part, just trying to stay in line and trying not to get any copyright notices, takedowns and not get cussed out by the Barbz. Like the other day especially, when it comes to them type of posts—we can post them, but let’s not over post it because it really does bring my day down.
I can imagine…
We’ll try to post something positive and then the comments will reflect, ‘Oh y’all are trying to be petty, y’all are trying to be messy!’ And it’s like that was not even our intention. So it’s not a win-win for some people. So if I don’t have to post it, I won’t.
That brings me to my next question, what is it like dealing with the fan bases for some of these celebs and then some of the celebs themselves that hop into the comments?
It’s annoying, I’ll be completely honest, because you know it’s BOSSIP over there and how our name is The Neighborhood Talk, they don’t address it [the TNT page] If they have an issue, it’s always directed at me as if I’m the one personally posting it or I have a vendetta against them. So they’ll say little things, they’ll do little things intentionally to try to hurt me and I might be at the gym or I might be outside minding my own business, enjoying my day off, and then that happens. So it has made me have a different taste for this. I don’t know where I’m at with it in my life mentally, but I don’t know if I like it anymore.
Source: Casey Diggs / The Neighborhood Talk
I understand…
They kind of sucked the fun out of it.
That was going to be my follow-up, how do you deal with that mentally—do you get a break?
No, I don’t get any breaks. I mean, they work their eight-hour shifts, but I’m always monitoring or I’m always giving them something [to write] or helping them with something. And then when they get off at the end of the day, we don’t have anybody on the West Coast so I’ll always come in and pick it up at the end of the day and then I’ll do it by myself on Sunday. But it is extremely stressful, to say the least. Mentally, I probably need to go see a therapist because it can just weigh on me sometimes. And I just feel like I am kind of by myself and people don’t understand. It’s not Play-Doh. I’m not on here just posting pictures. It actually is a job and sometimes people around me don’t understand that and that can be a little irritating.
It definitely is a job and I agree, a lot of people don’t understand our world and what we do–but despite that, you are one of the new faces of media. This is the new face of media, this is how people get their information. For you, what do you think about the media landscape right now and people getting their news directly on Instagram and from The Neighborhood Talk?
I like it. I feel like we’re in the new age and that’s how people want to get it. My only thing is that there are a million people trying to be bloggers and reporters now without the accolades. I feel like we kind of get lumped in with them, with people trying to not take us seriously or give us proper credit because we do investigate and make sure stuff is legit 99.9% of the time. We won’t get everything right, but we do take our time and try to make sure that what we’re putting out is completely accurate because I don’t want anybody coming at me saying my stuff is wrong.
What’s next for in 2024? Are you guys planning any big new campaigns with The Neighborhood Talk?
We’re actually doing a women’s event in New York City where we’re honoring women in the industry. So that’s something we’re working on, and trying to get a podcast off the ground.
We know where to follow The Neighborhood Talk, but where can we follow you, Kyle?
They can follow me @Kyle.Anfernee.