Publishers Are Migrating Their TikTok Audiences

With the fate of TikTok hanged on a Supreme Court ruling, news and entertainment editors are taking steps to prepare for a social media landscape without the popular vertical video app.

To do so, they are diversifying where they publish, migrating their audiences to other platforms, and allocating more resources to promising channels, such as YouTube Shorts, according to interviews with executives from NowThis, The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, Dotdash Meredith, and Gannett.

“There’s naturally a greater focus on TikTok right now, but adjusting to the platform’s changes is just part of working in media,” said Leah Wyar, group president of entertainment and beauty and style. by Dotdash Meredith. “Everything will be fine.”

Diversify its distribution

The best time to start planning for a potential ban on TikTok was several years ago, said Micah Gelman, the video editor at the Washington Post.

The Post was the first major news publisher to establish a strong presence on the platform, where it now boasts nearly 2 million followers.

But the news organization, like others, has taken pains from the start to distribute its vertical video content across a variety of platforms, including Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Snap. This decision reduced their dependence on any channel, making the loss of TikTok less consequential.

“The reality is that all publishers are largely in the same boat,” said NowThis Chief Executive Sharon Mussali. “If you publish social content, you probably do so on multiple platforms. So if it goes away, we all suffer to the same degree.

Similarly, the Daily Mail has also taken pains to strengthen its vertical video presence in a variety of relevant apps.