Dave Jorgenson built The Washington Post’s TikTok presence into one of the most cited examples of journalism on social media before leaving to launch an independent venture – and then becoming one of the most cited reasons for publishers’ fears of developing in-house talent. “What would have made you stay?” Pierre Caulliez, Gen Z media consultant and lead of the News Creator Exchange (NCX) programme, asked him at WAN-IFRA’s World News Media Congress in Marseille. Moderating a session that aimed to “learn from creators, to
have creators learning from newsrooms, and to find ways of collaboration” around a challenging newsroom priority, Caulliez probed Jorgenson and Local News International partner Lauren Saks – who previously led audience and video strategy at PBS and worked with Jorgensen at The Washington Post – for deeper insights into what works and what doesn’t. Mutual Respect is Principle The foundational dynamic that makes creator-newsroom partnerships work – whether in-house or external – lies in understanding and respecting the roles each play. The problem, in practice:
The newsroom tends to override the creator’s editorial instincts about their audience, and the creator resists the newsroom’s standards and verification processes. The fix: Mutual respect is crucial, notes Jorgenson. “Respect from the newsroom that you know your audience and you know what they’re going to like, and respect from the creator that this newsroom is going to make sure this is thoroughly fact-checked.” When the camera won’t lie: Authenticity throughout “Sometimes you can really tell within the first few seconds if a reporter was
told you need to make a video versus that reporter was excited to make that video,” noted Jorgenson. “And if I’m the viewer watching this, I’m going to swipe as soon as possible if I can tell that there’s some discomfort coming from them.” The problem: Many newsrooms treat on-camera work as a duty to be assigned rather than a disposition to be identified. The fix: Seek and develop willing contenders – and be transparent about the partnership. Make time a prime focus “Building in-house
talent takes time; Dave has been at this since 2019,” said Saks, stressing that building an audience is a slow growth.” Patience, adds Jorgensen, is required on all levels: from developing an on-camera style and presence, to recognising the value of a quality edit. The problem: Editors rushing to deadline need to recognise that both production and audience development are time-consuming – and require time to show results. The fix: Understand that creator-led content is not a lightweight, low-cost format; it requires a genuine production
chain, and cutting corners at the edit stage is likely to undermine everything that came before it. Working it out: Collaboration without compromise Local News International’s paid partnership with nonpartisan policy explainer Free the Facts proved that these are mutually beneficial exercises, with publishers reaching new, bigger audiences, and creators flexing their editorial muscle. “One of those videos is our most successful video ever,” revealed Jorgensen. “We found that these topics, and actually this collaboration, was a really great, natural way for our audience to
learn about something and it didn’t feel forced at all.” View this post on Instagram The transparency dimension was central to why it worked, he added. “We worked really hard to make sure that the videos were transparent: ‘here’s our partner in this video, here’s who we’re working with, here’s their logo’ – so it was very clear that that partnership was happening, but it still felt very native to our storytelling.” The bottom line: Transparency and authenticity are crucial to building trust; audiences can
read intent, and partnerships that expand what a creator covers has greater impact than those that feel financially motivated. The Retention Question The best partnerships, Jorgenson suggested, combine clear editorial briefing with genuine creative latitude: “Here’s a briefing on this topic we want you to cover – and enough back and forth where we all feel like we’re making a video that we’re happy about.” The newsrooms most likely to successfully retain creator talent are those that treat it not as a content strategy, but
as a long-term editorial investment – an institutional commitment that goes beyond individual managers or sympathetic editors, and demands the same structural support they would extend to any other form of serious journalism. See Also: Meeting the audience where they are: How Local News International is rewriting the rules of news delivery And (from Marseille): How Ex-Washington Post creators built a 375K subscriber news brand | Local News International
WAN-IFRA, Marseille, Dave Jorgenson, Lauren Saks, Local News International, Free the Facts, creators, newsrooms, TikTok, audience development, editorial collaboration, transparency, verification, in-house talent