YouTube wants to get you watching more news from ‘authoritative sources’
YouTube is embracing news from “authoritative sources” at a time when Meta is reluctant to promote hard news or politics on Threads and X owner Elon Musk has taken a dismissive stance toward “legacy media.” Google’s video platform is rolling out a new “immersive watch page experience” on mobile that’s designed to suggest more news content when users are watching news videos. It also plans to spend $1.6 million to promote the creation of news content for its shortform Shorts service.
The new YouTube watch page will appear when you open a video that has a newspaper icon and will highlight relevant longform videos, livestreams, podcasts, and Shorts videos beneath your currently playing content. “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,” Google’s blog post reads.
Footage of the YouTube feature shared by the video platform shows how opening a PBS video about floods in Pakistan will list more videos about the same news event beneath it under headings like “Latest updates,” “Explanations and commentary,” “Live news,” and “Shorts.” The recommended videos are all from major news publishers like The Associated Press, Sky News, and CBS Evening News.
According to Google, the new watch page experience will initially roll out on mobile in around 40 countries and will expand to its desktop and living room interfaces in the future.
Meanwhile, the Google-owned video platform is also pledging to spend $1.6 million to promote the creation of shortform Shorts news content with over 20 organizations across 10 countries. It plans to work with news outlets that already produce longform videos for YouTube to “jumpstart” the creation of shortform news content.
Google’s investment in authoritative news on YouTube is notable at a time when other platforms are more reluctant to court news from traditional mainstream outlets.
On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Musk has made little secret of his dislike of the press. Under his leadership, X no longer shows headlines on articles shared on the platform and has dismantled the system that verified journalists. “I almost never read legacy news anymore,” Musk recently tweeted. “What’s the point of reading 1000 words about something that was already posted on X several days ago?” A little over a week later, the EU opened an investigation into the platform following reports that it’s being used to spread “illegal content and disinformation, in particular the spreading of terrorist and violent content and hate speech.”
YouTube is embracing news from “authoritative sources” at a time when Meta is reluctant to promote hard news or politics on Threads and X owner Elon Musk has taken a dismissive stance toward “legacy media.” Google’s video platform is rolling out a new “immersive watch page experience” on mobile that’s…
Recent Posts
Archives
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- December 1969