The way that audiences get their news has shifted massively in the last ten years, with many people going directly to social media sites. YouTube has seen a boost because of this with 21% of audiences visiting each week for news, up from 16% in 2014 (according to the Reuters Digital News Report 2025). Many publishers and journalists are already taking advantage of this space and the BBC is one of them. In a recent webinar for the Civic Journalism Lab, BBC News Socials’ senior journalist Tash Salmon explained the benefits of using YouTube for your journalism and how you can grow a successful channel.

Reasons to join the YouTube bandwagon

Vice, ABC, CNN, and BBC all have over 15 million subscribers on the video sharing platform and apart from reaching a new audience, Tash went through several reasons why media organisations are on there. Firstly, unlike other video focused social media sites, YouTube allows you to produce multiple different types of video. These could vary from long explainer videos to taking advantage of the new YouTube Shorts. It’s also a great space to house some of your best content and have a library full of videos for viewers to easily access.

Tash also explained how it’s a good opportunity to grow brand recognition, and with the audience on YouTube tending to be younger, it presents the chance to engage with them and get them viewing your content. They are also more likely to become returning viewers if they know that you will be producing regular content around a certain topic or theme, or if it’s part of a video series. She also mentioned that you can collaborate between accounts as well now, which offers the possibility of reaching an even bigger audience.

The benefits of different video types and durations

Working out what kind of video length will appeal to your audience could well be a bit of trial and error, but Tash shared what publishers typically look to do. Firstly, you have the long-form video or VOD (video on demand). These are normally pre-recorded in a horizontal format and last twenty minutes or more. She said that the longer the video is, the more you have to keep people engaged to keep that watch time high. It also leads to more monetary potential as any video over eight minutes can make money from advertising.

Next are mid-form videos, which are under twenty minutes but generally over eight and still have monetary potential. Tash said that these tend to be news clips, video moments or scripted explainers. There are also short-form videos, or YouTube Shorts. These have to be a minimum of fifteen seconds long and a maximum of three minutes. These are in a vertical format and Tash shared their appeal to different audiences, as personality led videos work better on here. You can also re-use TikTok’s or Instagram reels in this format.

There is also the option to live stream on YouTube. This is good for breaking or rolling news and gives the opportunity to engage with the audience as well, explained Tash. She also mentioned picture posts that can be useful for click throughs as referrals and getting the audience back onto your own website. YouTube has also launched an entire section for podcasts. Tash shared  research from Edison that found that 84% of Gen Z watch podcasts, so this is an excellent way to tap into that younger audience.

Tips to be successful

While there is no guaranteed formula for how to be successful as a publisher on YouTube, Tash said that planning ahead and being consistent with the content you are posting is important. She also advised using analytics to see when the audience are visiting the platform and viewing your content so you know the right time to be distributing it. Tash explained that having timed and episodic content is a smart way to create a returning audience, and one that then hopefully comes back regularly to visit your channel. 

Another important aspect that Tash mentioned is the headline of the video. This needs to be concise and frontloaded with the main topic of the video and keywords so that it will appear in search results. Meanwhile, the thumbnail should be simple but stand out, and essentially explain the video within the image. She also underlined the importance of finding your own style, as viewers will quickly identify that it’s your channel when scrolling through content.

Looking to take advantage of other social media sites as a publisher? Check out explainers of how you can thrive on both Instagram and TikTok and also the impact that ‘news creators’ are having on the industry too. And if you’re in need of experts or case studies to speak on camera in a video for YouTube or elsewhere then you can find them on the Journalist Enquiry Service.