Since 2023, there’s been a showdown at the Washington Post – but not the kind you’d find on the front page. On one side: the paper’s traditional YouTube channel. On the other: Washington Post Universe, run by creator Dave Jorgenson. One’s polished and newsroom-led. The other’s scrappy, playful, and pure creator energy. And guess what? The creator content is absolutely smashing it. If you’re not thinking about making video this way, you’re already behind.
Jorgenson joined the Post back in 2017 to make their ‘Department of Satire’ YouTube series, but his biggest success came in 2019, when he convinced them to jump on TikTok. At the time, that was almost unheard of in mainstream media, where most outlets were still side-eyeing the platform (and some still are).
Why the hesitation? Mostly fear. Social media had already pulled the rug out from under referral traffic, first Facebook, then Twitter/X. TikTok felt risky. But with its explosive growth (even under threat of a US ban), most newsrooms eventually caved and launched anyway.
The engagement power of informality and humour
The Post’s irreverent tone on TikTok paid off big time. And in 2023, Jorgenson took the same approach to YouTube. His goal? Attract a younger, more plugged-in audience than the Post’s main channel had managed.
Matt Karolian from the Boston Globe crunched the numbers, and the gap is wild: over 18 months, Jorgenson’s team pulled in 75.5x more engagement per video than the official Washington Post channel.
That’s not a typo. Seventy-five times more. It’s a wake-up call for every comms team still clinging to clean scripts and corporate polish.
It is worth saying that the newsroom publishes videos across the news spectrum, whereas Jorgenson was free to pick and choose.
But here’s the twist: these videos don’t just happen. They may look casual and off-the-cuff, but each one takes time – around four hours per video, according a 2023 Vanity Fair interview.
The power of humour and personality in news isn’t new.
Humour and personality have always helped the news go down easier. We didn’t need TikTok to teach us that – TV figured it out decades ago.
In the 1950’s CBS news presenter Walter Cronkite, who interrupted a soap opera with news of Kennedy’s assassination, was known as ‘the most trusted man in America”.
And US late-night shows have been turning headlines into punchlines for years — SNL since 1975, The Daily Show since 1996. That’s the lineage Jorgenson comes from – he learned the ropes at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert before joining the Post.
What’s changed now? The delivery. Audiences expect humour and personality on their terms: on the platforms they actually use, from creators they feel they know. And if you can’t offer that, someone else will.
The ultimate challenge
Jorgenson has just launched a bold new test. He’s leaving to focus on his own channel, Local News International.
In a recent Forbes interview, he said:
“I think we’re well-positioned to reach an audience that can’t make sense of the current news landscape. I’m often reminded – from user comments – that I’m their first source for any given news story. For that reason, I take my news format of being silly but informative very seriously.”
The news prompted The New York Times to question whether he’ll get the same success without the Post.
Matt Karolian thinks the question should be, can the Post prosper without Jorgenson?
So far, the early signs suggest… maybe. Engagement rates on the flagship channel are very strong, but the gap in followerships is wide.
What’s the secret sauce behind ‘creator’ news videos?
Let’s compare two Washington Post YouTube Shorts, both covering the Epstein files.
First up: the newsroom’s version:“How Trump Lost Control of the Epstein Narrative”
- Framed as an explainer: a calm, clear breakdown from a senior video producer. Think: gentle lecture.
- Neutral tone: filmed in an office, with one presenter. It’s all about the facts, not the personality.
- Clean but safe visuals: archive footage, a bit of editing, nothing flashy.
- Safe, steady… and slightly forgettable.
Now, the creator cut: Jorgenson’s“What’s Going on With the Epstein Client List?”
- It’s a sketch: we’re in a future classroom, with a student (and his AI bot) grilling a teacher.
- Character comedy: Jorgenson plays all three roles. This is classic low-budget creator humour.
- Low-res visuals: paper printouts, props stuck to a corkboard. Intentionally lo-fi.
- Fast pace: snappy, sometimes clunky edits, quick-fire delivery, no time to zone out.
Same story. Same platform. Same length. But very different results: the newsroom explainer got 20,000 views and 700 reactions, the creator sketch got 1.9 million views and 124,000 reactions.
A note on social media ranting
One thing Washington Post Universe doesn’t lean on? The outrage formula.
It skips the style made famous by podcasts, pundits, and YouTube rants – the kind of provocative, personality-led commentary that drives clicks (and blood pressure) through the roof.
‘News influencers’ are a real force. In the US, Joe Rogan, part comedian, part sports guy, part podcast juggernaut, is the biggest. Not far behind: former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. After the 2025 Inauguration, a Reuters Institute poll found that 22% of Americans got news from Rogan, and 16% from Carlson in just one week.
But that’s not the playbook we’re talking about here. I’m focusing on the creator style that informs, entertains, and builds trust, without sliding into culture war bait. That’s the version most comms teams can actually use.
Five Megatrends Fueling the Creator Video Boom
Why are creator-style videos winning? It’s not just a fad, there are tectonic shifts in how we trust, scroll, and share. Here are the five big forces driving the rise:
1. People Trust People, Not Institutions
RISJ research shows creators now rank higher than traditional news brands on trust. Creator-style content satisfies the psychological need for connection and credibility in an age of institutional distrust. Whether it’s a journalist, doctor, or activist – if it’s human, visible, and relatable, it gets attention.
2. The Platforms Are Built for Creators
TikTok. Reels. Shorts. These formats were designed for fast, informal, creator-first content. No studio? No problem. If you can shoot, react, and adapt quickly, you’re good.
3. Attention Is Low. Expectations Are High.
You’ve got two seconds to hook someone. People scroll fast and stop only when something hooks them emotionally or visually. Great creator videos don’t waste a frame – they grab you fast, deliver value quick, and reward your attention with something surprising, useful, or funny. They feel like conversations, not broadcasts.
4. It’s About Conversations, Not Just Content
Today’s platforms reward engagement loops, not just views. Creator content starts something – comments, remixes, reaction videos. It’s content with a feedback loop built in.
5. We Crave Realness Over Polish
Polished is out. Honest is in. Audiences, especially younger ones, gravitate toward content that feels unfiltered, self-aware, and emotionally honest. Creator-led videos lean into this by showing vulnerability, humour, and experimentation. Mistakes, jokes, tangents? That’s part of the charm.
The power of these five trends lies in their overlap. Platforms reward human content, which matches user expectations for authenticity, fosters trust in individuals, undermines traditional gatekeepers, and so on.
How to introduce a ‘creator’ approach in your comms
This isn’t about becoming a TikTok star overnight. It’s about shifting your mindset and workflow to reflect how audiences increasingly engage – with people, not logos.
1. Understand What ‘Creator-Led’ Really Means
Traditional model: The organisation speaks and the audience listens (maybe). Content is polished, formal, and institution-first.
Creator model: The individual speaks and the audience connects, trusts, shares. Content feels informal, human, emotional, platform-native.
2. Identify the Right Voices Inside (or Near) Your Organisation
You don’t need influencers — you need credible, compelling individuals with a sense of humour, a natural way of communicating, and subject-matter knowledge or curiosity. They could be: A passionate programme officer, a younger staffer who understands memes, a field team member with stories to tell, or a freelance contributor you trust.
3. Loosen the Format
What to relax: Script rigidity, brand formality, visual perfection
What to retain: Factual accuracy, ethical storytelling, careful planning (a good creator-style piece feels off-the-cuff but tends to need plenty of thought).
4. Experiment
Creator-led content thrives when teams are allowed to test different tones and formats, fail without consequence, and learn what gets shared and what doesn’t.
Who’s Channeling Creator Energy Well?
Most of the organisations I work with aren’t digital natives. They’re legacy brands, NGOs, international bodies, and media organisations with history. But that doesn’t mean they can’t nail the creator mindset.
Here are three examples I keep coming back to – organisations that have recognised the power of creator-style content and are using it with real intent:
The World Economic Forum was relatively early on to TikTok and its first campaign – #AllTheDifference at Davos in 2020 – generated 2 billion video views. Most WEF’s TikToks are tightly scripted mini-explainers, but, occasionally, the team lets its hair down, as in the video that kicked off #AllTheDifference:
@worldeconomicforum Our #amazing editor @beyond_alp with the first #video of our #allthedifference campaign – throwing off labels and celebrating who we are #inspiration ♬ Uptown Funk – Bruno Mars
Or this light-hearted Covid guide to alternatives to shaking hands
@worldeconomicforum Try these handshake alternatives to stop the spread of coronavirus #covid19 #coronavirus #coronavirusspreading #flu #handshake #sick #contagious ♬ This Is How We Do It – Montell Jordan
The World Health Organisation aims to inform the wider public about health issues. One of its comms officers adopted several creator elements for its mythbusting Plot Twist series.
@who Vaccines are rigorously tested, they are effective, and they save lives. More than 150 million lives have been saved in the past 50 years thanks to vaccines! But you may be worried about what's in them? So, let’s break it down! #WorldImmunisationWeek ♬ original sound – World Health Organization (WHO)
And you won’t get shorter and more to the point on the danger of vapes than Switching isn’t Quitting:
@who Switching isn’t quitting! It’s still unclear whether e-cigarettes have any role to play in helping you quit tobacco at the population level.
♬ оригинальный звук – Emir Y
Greenpeace has been raising awareness of environmental damage for decades and brings an activist energy to its social videos.
The Slime Pollution Quiz is as zany as anything I’ve seen from an NGO:
@greenpeace_international What do you know about the air you breathe? #CleanAirNow #WorldEnvironmentDay ♬ original sound – Greenpeace
By contrast, Lock up your daughters is more deadpan:
@greenpeaceuk UPDATE: PROTEST RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK ⚠️⚠️ The UK government is using the same tactics they use for terrorism to lock up people discussing Palestine and climate creakdown over tea and biscuits. The new anti-protest laws, introduced by the Tories and continued by Labour, make it easier than ever to send peaceful protestors to jail. These laws aren’t there to keep you safe, they're there to keep you quiet. If you’re like us and this CONCERNS you… please tell Keir Starmer to repeal the new anti-protest laws by signing the petition in our bio 🙏🙏
♬ som original – Greenpeace UK
Still doubt this is for you? Look at CEOs’ creator videos on LinkedIn…
Even the C-suite is catching the creator bug – sort of. The Financial Times recently flagged a quiet trend: vertical video selfies from CEOs on LinkedIn. They’re not wacky, but they are a step toward something more human, compared to the heavily filtered, over-signed-off text posts we’re used to.
- Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan) used one to summarise his latest shareholder letter.
- Alex Mahon (Channel 4) announced her resignation:
- Sean Doyle (British Airways) gave an update on Heathrow Airport’s closure (too buttoned-up to count as true creator content, but still on the spectrum):
They’re not TikTok skits. But they do show that even the boardroom is experimenting with more personal, relatable formats.
Most organisations already have the talent they need to tell stories that travel. At Runcible Content, we help communications teams unlock that creator energy: turning internal expertise into short, smart, shareable storytelling that builds reach and trust. Book a no-commitment consultation here.