My name is David Lieberman, and I am the author of Citizens of Content: A Guide to Winning over the Doubters and Building a Community That Lasts. I wrote this book because I saw a massive disconnect in how enterprises value people. Traditional media giants see their audiences decline as they treat them as eyeballs to be mined for attention. But community-first platforms like Discord are soaring in value.

I realized that the future belongs not to those who shout the loudest, but to organizations that stop treating us as consumers and start treating us as citizens.

I hope that, in reading this book, you will discover that building a community isn’t just a nice-to-have marketing tactic—it is a survival strategy. In this book, I hope to instill in you the confidence to challenge the old extraction models of the attention economy. Ultimately, I want you to see this book as a tool to help you persuade skeptical leadership that empowering your audience is the safest, smartest path to growth.

In this book, you’ll learn about growth, resilience, and intelligence:

• The Valuation Gap: Why investors recently valued a chat app (Discord) higher than the owners of CBS and The New York Times, and what that tells us about the future of value.
• The Strategic Bridge: How to move from the fragile strategy of squeezing cash from a few superfans to building a sustainable ecosystem of active participants.
• The Citizen Mindset: Why audiences are tuning out traditional marketing and seeking spaces where they have a voice, a role, and a sense of purpose.
• Tactical Arguments: Specific frameworks and data you can use to prove to your boss that community engagement reduces risk and provides an early warning system for market shifts.

You will love this book if you are an executive, brand manager, or entrepreneur who feels that the old playbook isn’t working anymore.

Citizens of Content is a nonfiction book that speaks to enterprise leaders and students of management who want to understand the new rules of engagement before their competitors do.

The book is written in 3 Parts:

Part 1 contains the Diagnosis. It examines why the attention economy based on traditional identity-focused fandoms has become a trap, leading to a crisis of trust and a race to the bottom for creators and managers.

Part 2 contains the Shift. This section explores the psychology of the modern user—moving from passive consumption to active citizenship—and why participation is the new currency of loyalty.

Part 3 contains the Playbook. Here, you will find practical strategies for crossing the bridge: how to launch communities, how to measure success beyond simple ROI, and how to manage the risks of letting your audience co-create with you.

My Publishing Journey: Where Your Support Goes

I’m publishing Citizens of Content with the support of Manuscripts Press, an innovative publisher that provides me with a full publishing team to bring this book to life. Over the coming months I will work closely with:

• A revisions editor, copy editor, and proofreader to refine and elevate every story in the book
• A marketing strategist to help me connect with new audiences and make the book’s message reach those who need it most.
• A cover artist and layout editor who will ensure the final product is visually stunning and professionally produced.

Other Ways to Support Me

Some people just can’t contribute, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help:

• Please share my presale campaign on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Bluesky with your friends, family, and network. Please use #CitizensofContent so we can help amplify our efforts.
• Please recommend my book to five (5) friends, family members, or co-workers who you think would enjoy it via text or direct message on social media.

Thank you so much for all of your support!
David

About the Author 

David Lieberman is an Associate Professor and director of the graduate Media Management program at the Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York City.

With more than four decades of experience as a business journalist, David has chronicled the media industry’s most turbulent disruptions from the front row. At publications including USA Today and BusinessWeek, he broke major stories on corporate strategy and interviewed the world’s top CEOs.

He now dedicates his work to helping professionals bridge the gap between the public and the profession, providing the instruction leaders need to build sustainable, community-driven enterprises.

As a long-time bassist in symphony orchestras, jazz, and rock bands, David knows that keeping the rhythm in the background is often just as important as being the star in the spotlight.