Media Re-Engages Vertical Video as Audience Habits Shift Toward TikTok and Creators
A decade after a failed shift toward digital video, media organizations are once again prioritizing short-form visual content. As The Verge reports, current trends are driven by the massive growth of platforms like TikTok and YouTube, forcing newsrooms to adopt more casual, personality-driven formats to reach younger audiences who increasingly favor individual creators over traditional institutions.
Context from Industry Pulse
The resurgence of video in media follows a period of deep skepticism caused by Facebook's historical inflation of view counts, which led to significant job losses in the mid-2010s. Current data from Pew and Nielsen suggests that avoiding video is no longer an option, as YouTube and TikTok now dominate both general entertainment and news discovery for younger demographics. Unlike the first pivot, which relied on high-cost production, the current phase prioritizes low-cost, personality-driven content. Media outlets like The Washington Post and CNN are now forced to choose between adopting the casual aesthetics of influencers or losing their audience to independent creators who have already mastered the vertical format.
"Viewers favor the stripped-down selfie-style video dispatches from personalities they trust, even if those creators are not themselves reporting and writing the news."
The media industry is navigating a second major transition toward video, a move The Verge characterizes as more significant than the mid-2010s pivot that ended in widespread layoffs. That earlier era was defined by inflated metrics on platforms like Facebook, leading many outlets to eventually dismantle their video departments. However, the current landscape is shaped by unavoidable audience shifts, particularly among users aged 18 to 29, nearly 40 percent of whom now regularly consume news via TikTok.
Platforms across the social ecosystem have reorganized to prioritize vertical feeds, with YouTube and Meta experiencing record engagement for their short-form products. According to The Verge, YouTube has become the leading streaming platform, accounting for almost 16 percent of television viewing. This dominance has prompted even traditional outlets like The New York Times and CNN to experiment with more intimate, selfie-style formats and collaborative content that mimics the aesthetics of popular social media personalities.
Strategy now involves reformatting existing work into what is being called the clippening, where podcasts and articles are distilled into bite-sized vertical segments. Major newsrooms are also establishing creator networks to partner with influencers who already command public trust. These efforts aim to bridge the gap between polished documentary-style reporting and the unfiltered, fast-paced nature of modern social feeds, though some organizations have been slow to adapt their internal workflows for this level of coordination.
While the cost of production has dropped significantly due to smartphone technology, the financial viability of this second pivot remains a question. The Verge notes that the previous industry shift was based on the false assumption that social media engagement could easily offset production costs. As newsrooms hire dedicated social video teams and influencers, they face the familiar challenge of turning high view counts into sustainable revenue models in an environment where creators often command more loyalty than the brands they represent.
The Industry Pulse Bottom Line
Newsrooms are trading polished production for influencer-style intimacy to survive. The success of this second pivot depends on whether outlets can monetize viral social engagement better than they did a decade ago.