Today, Google announced that it will be rolling out a new effort to help news organizations post news on YouTube and help them make shorts. This comes as YouTube wants to become your first stop for breaking news.
“YouTube has long been a home for news viewers to learn more about the world and the news industry to reach them through innovative digital formats. Over the years, we’ve focused on developing a suite of products to help people easily find content from authoritative news sources, like our Top News and Breaking News shelves. Now more than ever, we remain committed to connecting people to high-quality information they can trust, particularly in times of elections, unrest, and natural disasters.” Google said in a blog statement today.
To help do this YouTube will also be launching a new watch page dedicated to news. Here you will find a custom-created feed of news. “To open the watch page for a specific news topic, click on a video with the newspaper icon on the homepage or in search results. This feature is rolling out over time for mobile users in approximately 40 countries, with desktop and living room integration to come. We believe this updated news experience will help viewers access a range of credible and diverse voices when they want to dive into a news topic.”
YouTube will also be investing $1.6 million USD to 20 news organizations across 10 countries to help them create more content on YouTube, primarily YouTube shorts.
This all comes as YouTube fights new comers to short-form news, with Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok increasingly taking market share from YouTube.
“Our work is far from finished, and we’re excited to continue working towards our mission to ensure YouTube is the best place to discover, learn, and engage with news.” YouTube said in its blog post.