It appears that even one of the biggest newspapers in the world has given up on getting people to read.
What happened: The New York Times is launching a new scrollable, vertical video feed on its app today for originally produced TikTok-style clips. The “Watch” tab will have newsier videos and op-eds, as well as lifestyle content from NYT Cooking, The Athletic, and Wirecutter.
- The Times already boasts the most digital subscriptions of any news publication in the world, with 10.8 million paid subs, and now pumps out 75 hours of video content a month. The paper says its viewership has more than doubled year over year.
Why it’s happening: A 2024 survey by the Reuters Institute found that 66% of people across 47 countries watched short-form news videos every week. But, news outlets often miss out on that traffic (and the ad dollars that come with it) — over two-thirds of those views are on third-party platforms like Instagram.
- As a result, publications like The Economist, Wired, and the Washington Post have leaned more into TikTok-style carousels on their own homepages or within articles. The Atlantic dubbed this new type of short-form journalism “Prestige TikToks.”
Why it matters: Whether it’s the Times, Netflix, or OpenAI, it seems like every company is turning to the same infinite-scroll formula. For us, that means more and more of the media we consume — from breaking news to bread-baking tutorials — will likely be TikTok-ified.—LA
