Maybe people really are pivoting to news video this time

The Weekly Wrap: June 21, 2024

Maybe people really are pivoting to news video this time

The last pivot to video went very badly for news publishers who made bad decisions based largely on Facebook data that might not have been real. “News publishers’ ‘pivot to video‘ was driven largely by a belief that if Facebook was seeing users, in massive numbers, shift to video from text, the trend must be real for news video too,” I wrote in 2018, “even if people within those publishers doubted the trend based on their own experiences, and even as research conducted by outside organizations continued to suggest that the video trend was overblown and that news readers preferred text.”

A few years later, though, a pivot to news video appears to be having again. This time, it’s backed up by outside research — like research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which released its annual Digital News Report this week. (We always look forward to this report and covered its findings here, here, and here.) “Most audiences still prefer text because of its flexibility and control, but that doesn’t mean that video — and especially short-form video — is not becoming a much bigger part of media diets,” the authors write. “Across countries, two-thirds (66%) say they access a short news video, which we defined as a few minutes or less, at least once a week, again with higher levels outside the U.S. and Western Europe. Almost nine in ten of the online population in Thailand (87%), access short-form videos weekly, with half (50%) saying they do this every day. Americans access a little less often (60% weekly and 20% daily), while the British consume the least short-form news (39% weekly and just 9% daily).”

Are people watching these short news videos on publishers’ websites??! LOL, no. As RISJ’s Nic Newman wrote in a piece for us, almost all consumption (72%) of these videos is on third-party platforms like YouTube and TikTok. They watch mainstream publishers’ content there, but they watch a lot of competing news video, too:

Few people — just 4% across the 47 countries RISJ surveyed — use online video as their only source of news. But, the report’s authors note, “for most publishers the shift towards video presents a difficult balancing act. How can they take advantage of a format that can engage audiences in powerful ways, including younger ones, while developing meaningful relationships — and businesses — on someone else’s platform?” It’s a question publishers have grappled with before, but this time it’s a problem based on an actual trend.

— Laura Hazard Owen

From the week

Is the news industry ready for another pivot to video? Aggregate data from 47 countries shows all the growth in platform news use coming from video or video-led networks. By Nic Newman.

Many people don’t pay full price for their news subscription. Most don’t want to pay anything at all Is increasing subscriber numbers by offering people rock-bottom trial prices sustainable? By Craig Robertson.

What’s in a successful succession? Nonprofit news leaders on handing the reins to the next guard “Any organization that is dependent on having a founder around is inherently unsustainable.” By Sophie Culpepper.

Worldwide, news publishers face a “platform reset” Some findings from RISJ’s 2024 Digital News Report. By Nieman Lab Staff.

The strange history of white journalists trying to “become” Black “To believe that the richness of Black identity can be understood through a temporary costume trivializes the lifelong trauma of racism. It turns the complexity of Black life into a stunt.” By Alisha Gaines.

The Baltimore Banner, turning two, celebrates a subscriber bump and a new education hub Highlights from elsewhereVulture / Nicholas QuahHow chat podcasts have taken over the medium and dominated the cultural discourse (again) →“If the public face of podcasting was once thinky narrative shows vying for high-art legitimacy, these days it’s chat and interview programs that hustle their way into your life.”The Daily Beast / Harry LambertThe career that took Will Lewis to the top of The Washington Post →“The episode left Lewis reviled by Murdoch’s rank-and-file. He had to work off-site, and at one point deployed a bodyguard. ‘The journalists thought he was there to give them up and save management,’ says an informed observer, adding: ‘which he was.'”The Wall Street Journal / Ann-Marie AlcántaraCan you replace Google search with Reddit? I tried it for a week →“As you can see, it isn’t clear-cut. But one thing’s certain: Googling isn’t what it used to be — for better or worse.”The Wrap / Natalie Korach70% of the unionized editorial staffers at The Daily Beast are taking buyouts →“Twenty-five unionized staffers took the buyouts, equivalent to nearly 70% of the guild, including almost all of the outlet’s senior staffers…’We’re currently watching the collapse of The Beast,’ the individual told The Wrap. ‘There is no doubt the site won’t be able to recover from this.'”The Washington Post / Alexandra PetriSigns your Sinclair station is injecting propaganda into local news →“News that local Little League team won its series concludes with anchor saying, ‘Nice to see one victory that we can call legitimate.'”Defector / Owen LewisThe “Longform” podcast told the story of an industry →“If you want to learn about writers’ processes, it’s the place to go. If you want to hear rejection stories and tales of someone taking a chance on writers, it’s the place to go. A single Longform episode can invoke fierce inspiration or great sorrow, sometimes both within an hour.”

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