Ask someone in their 50s (a non-journalist) to name a living journalist. They might say Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. Ask someone in their 20s, though, and they might say Taylor Lorenz, Dave Jorgenson, or Jack Corbett — because they’ve seen them on TikTok.
Younger audiences aren’t opening up a physical newspaper or turning on the 7 p.m. news (sorry). They’re scrolling on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. And after seeing the success of The Washington Post and Planet Money‘s TikToks, other outlets are going to want in. But it won’t just be brand accounts posting these TikToks — it’ll be reporters using their own accounts to explain their reporting.
In 2018, TikTok was seemingly still just an app for cosplayers and children, but it’s become the world’s most popular app. It’s clear that TikTok is so much more than a dance app for kids. Gen Z is using TikTok as a search engine and it’s the most downloaded app for the 18-24 age group.
We’re going to see more journalists using personal (and brand) TikTok accounts to connect with young audiences in new ways. NPR and The Washington Post have proved that TikTok works for building connections with young audiences. The Washington Post has 1.5 million followers on TikTok, and Planet Money has more than 780,000.
What draws people to these accounts are the personalities behind them. We see the same people over and over again and develop relationships with them as individuals. It might not convert into pageviews, and it might not be a moneymaker at first, or maybe ever. But it has value.
We must meet audiences where they are and provide them with news in ways that are easy for them to understand — and today, that’s on TikTok. People are demanding (and receiving) more and more access and transparency to public figures, and that will extend to journalists too. Gen Z demands authenticity from their public figures, and journalists will be more ready to give it.
Jaden Amos is an audience editor at Axios.
Ask someone in their 50s (a non-journalist) to name a living journalist. They might say Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. Ask someone in their 20s, though, and they might say Taylor Lorenz, Dave Jorgenson, or Jack Corbett — because they’ve seen them on TikTok.
Younger audiences aren’t opening up a physical newspaper or turning on the 7 p.m. news (sorry). They’re scrolling on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. And after seeing the success of The Washington Post and Planet Money‘s TikToks, other outlets are going to want in. But it won’t just be brand accounts posting these TikToks — it’ll be reporters using their own accounts to explain their reporting.
In 2018, TikTok was seemingly still just an app for cosplayers and children, but it’s become the world’s most popular app. It’s clear that TikTok is so much more than a dance app for kids. Gen Z is using TikTok as a search engine and it’s the most downloaded app for the 18-24 age group.
We’re going to see more journalists using personal (and brand) TikTok accounts to connect with young audiences in new ways. NPR and The Washington Post have proved that TikTok works for building connections with young audiences. The Washington Post has 1.5 million followers on TikTok, and Planet Money has more than 780,000.
What draws people to these accounts are the personalities behind them. We see the same people over and over again and develop relationships with them as individuals. It might not convert into pageviews, and it might not be a moneymaker at first, or maybe ever. But it has value.
We must meet audiences where they are and provide them with news in ways that are easy for them to understand — and today, that’s on TikTok. People are demanding (and receiving) more and more access and transparency to public figures, and that will extend to journalists too. Gen Z demands authenticity from their public figures, and journalists will be more ready to give it.
Jaden Amos is an audience editor at Axios.
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale