The YouTube logo starting to rise over a hill

Cuttings #10: YouTube is coming for your news

YouTube wants your news videos — and your podcasts (but ad-free). Plus more evidence that we need to get serious about video… again.

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth

Good & Bad News from YouTube

It's hard to overstate the importance of YouTube as a media platform — and yet it remains strangely absent from so many discussion about news and journalism. Yes, perhaps that's because the industry has been burnt again and again with video. But, by ignoring it, we cost ourselves a huge chunk of potential audience — especially those critical, hard-to-reach younger generations.

There's some good announcements coming out of Google's media hub — but some worrying news, too:

Good News: YouTube ❤️ News

In an era when so many social media services are slithering away from anything that looks like news, it's nice to see YouTube embracing it. You could, of course, be cynical, and think this is one, relatively low effort, way they can start dealing the vast ocean of conspiracy theories and misinformation on the platform.

YouTube wants to get you watching more news from “authoritative sources”
And news publishers creating more shortform news.
The Verge

Bad News: YouTube Podcasts 💔 Your Ads

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Author

Adam Tinworth

Adam is a lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, and a journalist for more than 30. He lectures on audience strategy and engagement at City, University of London.