Jorgenson and his video team at the post had already been seeding their content on other platforms long before the TikTok ban became a tangible reality. In fact, YouTube Shorts has emerged as a more reliable performer for the Post than TikTok in the past few months. But Jorgenson says that they’re playing to a different audience on that platform.
“In terms of age demographics, it’s similar,” he notes, referring to the younger audiences that news organizations are eager to reach. “But if a story takes off on TikTok, it becomes a thing of its own, whereas YouTube doesn’t necessarily have that kind of culture.”
Another thing that eases Jorgenson’s mind is that even if TikTok goes away, journalism’s vertical video era is here to stay—at least for now. “There are options out there, and other apps that desperately want to be the next TikTok. My main worry is to figure out where the audience ends up because I don’t want to miss out on the fun.”
Heather Gardner, HeatherGTV and The American Resolution podcast
As an independent journalist who depends on a steady revenue stream from TikTok, Heather Gardner has already felt the impact of TikTok’s looming ban on her bank account.
“I got my first paid advertisement with a client this week for $6,000,” she says candidly. “But then they came back before we signed the contract and said, ‘Oh wait, TikTok’s being banned—we can offer $3,000.’ This has already affected my bottom line.”
Gardner built her TikTok news business from the ground up in 2020 after stints at such legacy media brands as Entertainment Weekly and HuffPost, where she co-created and hosted the ICYMI video series. Her own brand of independent digital journalism is punchy, impassioned, and informed—a recipe that plays well on TikTok, where she has nearly 400,000 followers who followed her when she attended the Democratic National Convention last summer.
For the record, HeatherGTV also has a presence on Instagram, YouTube, and X, and Gardner has been directing her TikTok audience to follow those accounts after Jan. 19. So far, though, the metrics aren’t suggesting that viewers are listening.
