19 September 2026
News publishers are ramping up native vertical video production, as audiences increasingly consume news in TikTok-style feeds. Media companies prioritize native videos to deepen audience engagement and open up new ad inventory on their own properties. The creator economy will be worth $37 billion in ad spend in 2024, commanding nearly a 25% year-over-year increase.
Publishers are embracing short-form video first and foremost as a strategy for reaching new, younger audiences. 21% of U.S. adults under 30 are now getting regular news updates from creators and social media personalities, up from just 10% in 2021, according to Pew Research.
Mark Howard, chief operating officer of Time magazine, confirmed the shift's growing impact. 48% of under-35 social media users now consume news from creators, while only 41% look to mainstream media, Digiday reports.
Unlike the last pivot to video a decade ago, publishers today are building name-brand properties rather than relying on platform distribution. The idea is to reduce pressure on web traffic from search algorithms and to benefit more directly from increased engagement with existing readers. That could pay off, given the soaring ad revenue in the creator economy. According to IAB, creator economy ad spend more than doubled in just three years, from $13.7 billion in 2021 to $29.5 billion in 2024. It's projected to hit $37 billion next year, a 25% increase.
For publishers, TikTok-inspired native video is partly a hedge and partly an opportunity. Newsrooms can use it to keep audiences who increasingly watch vertical video. And they can monetize those audiences more fully than web pages can. Significant numbers of U.S. adults, 21%, are getting regular news updates from creators.
Lighting up newer surfaces with native video also changes the ad sales proposition.
Ad revenues will be the biggest growth driver for Time in 2025, Howard said. He noted that Time sells vertical video ads at a 25% to 40% CPM premium over standard web display ads. The company is now placing vertical videos on nearly every article page in collaboration with ad-tech company Media.net.
Other major publishers are now prioritizing similar strategies. CNN added a Shorts feed in November. It features a 30-second sponsored director’s cut above the app’s home, live TV, news and sports sections, but centralizes the player to keep the user experience seamless.
The New York Times, meanwhile, recently launched a Watch tab with a vertical-by-default icon. According to Digiday sources, the Times sees video as a key growth driver for 2025, and the Watch tab was built around monetizing engagement.
Even video content isn't recession-proof. Publishers recognize the volatility in the creator ecosystem and the struggling streaming market. FT Strategies research finds that only 18% of publishers view short-form video as a major new revenue driver. On the other hand, 78% believe video content is what audiences want...so they see little choice.
Where surveyed publishers put their money, however, tells a different story.
Of 128 surveyed publishers, nearly 79% said they would increase video content production in the next 12 months, while 74% said the same for YouTube-focused content. 56% plan to increase their TikTok efforts, up 23 percentage points since last year.
Only 41% will prioritize long-form content, while 60% see short-form video primarily as a reach and audience-growth strategy, not a meaningful direct-revenue channel. 18% see it as a major revenue driver, according to FT Strategies' Future Newsroom Study.
Editorially, this means the old approach of writing articles, then posting excerpts to video-friendly platforms, is falling out of favor. AP's most recent analysis suggests treating native video as a primary storytelling format, not a marketing tactic.
CNN and Time's efforts make this clear. They use native feeds and creators, but secure integration through premium ad providers to minimize user loss while achieving higher CPMs than display ads.
This reflects an editorial shift as well. In practice, print journalists are now taking on dual roles, as cameras and scripts replace notebooks and articles.
So, if marketers assume that publishers will start competing for sponsorship and ad share in 2025, they should reconsider how they price and package. The same is true in the marketing world. Users report that shop-in-carousel and in-video ads are duplicating content from Instagram and TikTok. While TikTok’s video tools are native, marketers are repurposing them with the same ad creative.
So should brands assume that branded content will become more or less effective than traditional ads? Short answer: they don’t know.
Newsrooms feel the same uncertainty. Research finds even highly produced video struggles to match the authenticity expected by vertical-video audiences. Time's CPM premium suggests that this year's vertical-first push was worthwhile.
Reporters now shooting video themselves marks a cultural shift. Industry analysts note that audiences sometimes perceive polished videos, article links, and stylized content as advertising…not news.
