YouTube is the second most popular social platform, according to the 2023 Reuters Digital News Report, and its growing usage aligns with audiences’ continued shift toward video-based platforms.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s YouTube channel recently hit the milestone of 100,000 subscribers. The channel was born in 2013, but it wasn’t until we bolstered our resourcing, commissioned specifically for the platform, and uploaded more frequently that we saw an exponential growth in reach and subscribers.

Prior to this effort six months ago, the channel had about 65,000 subscribers. In the six months prior to October, we’ve gained an additional 40,000 subscribers. That’s an increase of about 67% in that short time. That’s not including the 307% increase in views and 147% in watch time.

We redesigned our channel and thumbnails to make sure all our content had a particular look and feel. As a platform, YouTube is an opportunity to showcase our premium video offerings and the value of subscribing to our mastheads.

Contextualising the news

The type of content we commission and upload to our YouTube channel is varies and includes city and state videos, podcasts, explainers, and breaking news packages and features. These varied content pillars allow us to cater to a number of different audiences. It also allows content to surface via different means on the platform, such as via recommendations, on the home feed, and as breaking news straps.

An example of how we approach a news event is the recent Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum. On our channel we offered:

• An interview with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
• A look back at the 1965 Freedom Ride and ‘67 referendum. 
• An explainer on what the Voice referendum is.
• An explainer on how the vote will be counted.
• Answering readers’ questions.
• A breakdown of how Australia voted.
• An analysis on why the referendum failed. 

YouTube also adds value to our news brands and allows viewers to understand the value of our journalism.

In June a Federal Court judge found decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith committed war crimes. It was an historic victory for our mastheads and our journalism. To complement our coverage, we offered a variety of videos to make sense of the news event, including:

• Our reporters, who broke the story, discussing the case win and what it means for journalism.
• A podcast episode on the defamation case win.
• A look back at how the case developed, narrated by our journalist.
• An audio snippet the Australian Federal Police recorded of the soldier and a fellow veteran.
• A family member of one of the victims.

What are people searching?

YouTube is the perfect cross-section for people who like to consume news visually and actively search for news content.

A large proportion of internal YouTube traffic comes from videos that are recommended on the home screen and as related content. By understanding these viewing patterns and what content gets surfaced on the home tab, this has resulted in videos accumulating hundreds and thousands of views.

That, combined with a sharp and eye-catching thumbnail, and a clear and search-friendly headline is a recipe for success. Videos need to have a punchy hook but also a description that conveys the nature of the story, so those who have no prior knowledge want to click through and view.

An opportunity to target new and younger audiences

YouTube is an opportunity to target those who consume media via a different format, as not all audiences want to consume news via text. Social natives are shifting their attention away from Facebook to more visually focused platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

The proportion of people aged 18 to 24 years old who have watched a news video online via social media has increased year-on-year, especially with those who consume a video on a news Web site.

In particular, for those whose attention spans are shorter, vertical video becomes increasingly important in terms of a distribution strategy as readers consume mobile-first content.

A mixed video diet, including vertical

Our YouTube channel is a place where you can get your news explained, listen to our podcasts, and watch short documentaries. Like our content on the platform, our channel offers light and shade — not simply breaking news. And alongside the main channel, there’s the vertical video segment: Shorts.

Though it’s come years after the ascent of Instagram Reels and TikTok, there’s still a big appetite for vertical video on another platform as demonstrated in this year’s numbers. Because of our experience with vertical distribution, we were able to quickly adapt to Shorts. It also helped that we did not have to cut multiple versions of a video as the YouTube page is a joint account for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

We experimented with content we were already sharing to Reels and TikTok, but noticed that while local content resonated on the other platforms, culture and world content, in particular, really resonated on Shorts.

Shorts has been crucial in reaching non-subscribers and funnelling them to our main YouTube page. We have had about 10 million views on Shorts since April and more than half of our 35,000+ subscriber growth on YouTube in that time came via Shorts.

These YouTube results are very promising and show the opportunity for continued growth as we understand more about our audiences and what videos they like to consume.

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