For Yahoo News, TikTok Is Information Exchange

About a week after Russia invaded Ukraine, TikTok user @ohiomalamutes, a person who goes by the name “Cory” and has 483 followers, wondered if the U.S. would join in the fight. Cory asked about the possibility in a comment underneath a Yahoo News TikTok post that provided coverage of the conflict.

About an hour later, Cory got his answer, in the form of a freshly produced video clip, posted and tagged with his handle. Yahoo News writer Mike Bebernes explained to Cory and other TikTok viewers that if the U.S., which is a member of NATO, engaged militarily with Russia, 29 other NATO nations would then have to come to America’s defense. Such a maneuver would “effectively mean the start of World War III,” Bebernes said, something Russian President Vladimir Putin likely believed would not be a desirable outcome for NATO countries when he invaded non-NATO member Ukraine.

Eric Duran, Yahoo News TikTok producer, who’s part of the publication’s audience development team and stars in many of its TikTok clips, says the “exchange of information” between Cory and Yahoo News via TikTok is emblematic of the platform’s power and spirit. For publications like Yahoo News especially, Duran says that on TikTok “it’s about engaging with the community,” not “coming in, uploading a video and leav[ing].

“We’re coming into TikTok to really educate and inform this new generation,” Duran adds, referring to Generation Z, the young demographic that accounts for much of the TikTok usership. Yahoo News’s mission on the platform, Duran says, is to also get Gen Z to “see that the news is interesting,” and have its TikTok feed “be a place where you can really learn.”

This approach has helped Yahoo News attract 1.7 million TikTok followers in just two years of posting on the platform — an outcome that certainly can’t hurt its brand sustainability efforts.

“Yahoo News’ TikTok is focused on leveraging the expertise of our multi-generational newsroom to ensure we are delivering fact-based news to our Gen Z audience and meeting them where they are,” said Joanna Lambert, Yahoo president and GM. “It’s for Gen Z by Gen Z. Our continued growth is a reflection of how this strategy has been resonating with our audience.”

By comparison, traditional TV news outlet ABC News has 1.5 million followers. And while NBC News and CBS News outpace Yahoo News’s follower count, it’s not by much, with each clocking in at 2.3 million.

Duran says thanks to a friendly algorithm and the platform’s “For You” page, which curates a video feed based on user content preferences and not which accounts they follow, TikTok clips (often referred to as “TikToks” themselves) frequently reach much larger audiences than their publisher’s follower counts. Yahoo News TikToks regularly compel two or three million viewers to watch; some individual Yahoo News TikToks, Duran says, have garnered 30 million views.

On top of actively engaging with its users, Yahoo News TikTok also keeps up with the platform’s trends, producing what Duran calls “TikTok-first content,” as opposed to throwing up “repurposed” video that was originally intended for a different digital landscape. Duran will post a light-hearted clip about mask safety during the pandemic, with no voiceover, just a popular song playing, video of him putting on a mask, and some text-based info. There’s also a regular segment on the account, “Good News With Gabby,” which highlights some trending, happier stories.

That’s not to suggest Yahoo News doesn’t get serious on TikTok. Scrolling through its posts, the heavier, tragic and more shocking stories tend to get the biggest viewership. Within four hours of posting about the death of the man who’d received a pig heart transplant two months earlier, the Yahoo News TikTok devoted to the story earned more than 110,000 views.

In the 17-second clip, Duran summarized the story to a mild piano soundtrack, which is linked up in the post. A screenshot of the corresponding Associated Press story appears behind Duran as well. (TikToks on the Yahoo News account will also feature screenshots of Yahoo News stories, naturally, as well as those from other news aggregate sources like Reuters.) Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, Duran says Yahoo News’s TikTok follower count has ballooned by 50,000.

The digital publication has a team of five working on the TikTok feed. While there are some TikToks with relatively high production value coming out of Yahoo News, most are filmed with an iPhone and edited directly through the app. Graphics and music can also be added to a TikTok via the platform’s built-in video production features.

“That’s the beauty of TikTok,” Duran says. “It puts the tools in the creator’s hands.”

Duran says he uses a ring light, as well as a greenscreen filter, which, again, is offered through the app. Clips that deserve it will get the Adobe Premiere treatment and sometimes B-roll from aggregate sources, but under-producing stories is generally preferable on the platform. Less-refined video just fits in better in user feeds, giving the content a more authentic, organic touch, not unlike the clips that other users upload to the platform.

Live-streaming events has also been a success for Yahoo News’s TikTok crew. Through the platform they live-streamed coverage of the recent State of the Union address, and Duran says during one recent week Yahoo News’s TikTok streams attracted 350,000 viewers.

Duran says his team’s experimentation with what works on the platform will continue. There’s plenty more growth, in terms of viewership and following, to be enjoyed as well, he says, but ultimately that will only be contingent on the continuation of one core value: “Our audience is coming to Yahoo News,” Duran says, “because they trust us.”

Editor’s Note: This is the latest of TVNewsCheck’s “Newsroom Innovators” profiles, a series showcasing people and news organizations evolving the shape and substance of video reporting. These profiles examine the inception of their innovations, the tools they employ and how they’re reconciling experimental approaches to news storytelling within daily workflows. You can find the others here.