News & current affairs creators TV producers should know about
16 creators and channels covering news and investigative journalism.
I’ve previously touched on the growth of news influencers and news organisations getting into YouTube: high profile individuals such as Piers Morgan and Megyn Kelly (who this week announced she’s launching her own podcast network), as well as established news orgs like Channel 4 News and the The Sun. Perhaps it is fair to assume that at some point soon - or soonish - the BBC will take an even bigger step into this space, while other former print publishers are also ramping up their efforts, such as this video by the Daily Mail on the battle of Kharkiv.
In addition, YouTube has recently been helping journalists set up as creators on the platform, and so it is reasonable to believe that they see news as the next big genre to focus on.
As the consumption of news and journalism via YouTube and social becomes even more mainstream, the more the thorny issue of fact checking will come to the fore, both from a political perspective but also with audiences who are already trying to seek out trustworthy sources.
To understand how we got here it is important to consider that what we are living through is the crashing together of polar opposite regimes when it comes to news and fact checking. Using the UK as an example, but each country faces their own version of the same challenge: we have a long-standing and widely understood media landscape when it comes to broadcast news and reporting. There are two key features: firstly, laws covering things like contempt of court, libel and copyright. And secondly, rules on media regulation - Ofcom for TV and radio, and all the other bodies for games, cinema, print media and advertising. The result is that if you live in the UK, you are likely to have a broad sense that there are rules applying to news and media outlets, and you perhaps might be aware these differ depending on whether you are consuming TV/radio or print.
However, this comes crashing into conflict with the Wild West that is the internet, which from the start was a place where anything goes; a globalised expanse free from regulation although still subject to the laws of each country; somewhere that in theory anyone can publish anything. There were several key aspects that created the internet we have today in terms of how news and facts are treated and why we are still dealing with these issues now:
Nearly all the dominant platforms started in the US, and therefore are not steeped in the laws and cultures of other countries (so as one example, the USA’s laws on copyright and libel are different from the UK)
The companies and their staff have not necessarily been socialised within the UK’s media landscape, so Ofcom is unfamiliar
Tech companies have successfully argued that legally they are providers of platforms and are not publishers, and therefore have protections from being held responsible for the content people publish to their platforms
Each company has their own individual set of additional (and changeable) rules of what is and isn’t permissible on their platforms.
Put all this together, and we get a messy mix of huge volumes of content being published to these platforms. Some of this content is subject to territory by territory media regulation, while other content has not gone through any sort of editorial verification process and rather is completely dependent on each creator’s own journalistic training or legal understanding. Meanwhile, the platforms are pulling other content because it goes against their own policies, however some of this content may have been fine to be broadcast on UK TV under Ofcom’s rules.
As well as these issues, there is also the question of investment in original journalism. Many creator and channels are providing ‘takes’ where they package up existing news and put their own spin on it, and therefore have less of a focus on chasing down stories and breaking news. So the expensive and time-consuming work of digging up stories is often being left to traditional news organisations. As we’ve seen, especially for local news, this is an area where journalism has been under huge financial pressure for quite some time.
I’ve put together a list of various news and current affairs creators who are individuals or independent companies rather than existing news organisations (I’ll do a list of them in the future). I’ve included creators and channels that are producing videos similar to news packages and films, rather than podcasts or discussion formats at this stage - again, I’ll do one of those too in the future. The usual caveat that I’ve not verified any of the content, and I’ve embedded YouTube videos as Substack struggles with TikTok embeds - worth noting however, that many of these creators are more active with bigger audiences on TikTok, so I’ve included those links too.
Dylan Page
Platforms: TikTok, YouTube, Instagram
Subscribers: TikTok: 14.9m, 1.2bn likes; YouTube 674k; Instagram 1.5m
YouTube views: 84m
Dylan Page - aka News Daddy - is one of the biggest news creators who hasn’t come from a traditional journalism background. He says: “I set out to revolutionize the way news is consumed by making it engaging, accessible, and entertaining for the new generation of digital audiences. On TikTok, I cover everything from breaking news, current affairs, politics, entertainment and culture, distilling complex stories into easily digestible videos.” His TikTok channel is broader in subject matter than his YouTube channel (indeed, it is worth comparing them both); recent TikTok videos include protests in Serbia and the strife in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was invited to a recent Nato Summit, and also is appearing in the next Sidemen series for Netflix as a contestant.
The News Girl
Platform: TikTok, YouTube, Substack
Subscribers: YouTube 111k, TikTok 3.5m, Substack 117k
YouTube views: 3.4m
Lisa Remillard is The News Girl, and has a background in local TV journalism in the US. She founded a media company called Beond TV in 2018, and then started posting her own videos to YouTube and TikTok reporting current events. Her big focus is on straight facts with straplines such as “fighter of misinformation” and “News. Made. Simple.”
What You Missed Today
Platform: TikTok
Subscribers: 454k, 8.3 likes
There are quite a few channels that do recaps of each day’s news, but what is different about this channel is the two women who host it appear on screen but never speak, while pointing at the various important bits of text and pictures to explain each story. For example here is their latest video from today.
Under the Desk News
Platforms: TikTok, YouTube, Substack, Instagram
Subscribers: YouTube 166k; TikTok 3.5m; Instagram 824k; Substack 129k
YouTube views: 2.4m
V Spehar gained popularity after posting a video directed at VP Mike Pence from under a desk during the January 6th 2021 insurrection in Washington DC. Under the Desk News now operates across a broad range of channels, including Substack where it is described as: “The home for news that should matter to you, by V Spehar, an accomplished TikTokker who's been called "GenZ’s Walter Cronkite." Here you'll find a place for nuanced conversations and exclusive reporting that center your emotional safety.” Spehar recently worked with the LA Times running their TikTok channel.
Coffeezilla
Platform: YouTube
Subscribers: 4.2m
YouTube views: 521m
Coffeezilla is hugely popular for uncovering scams, fraudsters and fake gurus online. His usual targets are bitcoin scams, creator-endorsed dubious claims as well other forms of false advertising. His videos are worth a watch as he spends a lot on telling visually appealing stories - including a set that is like a western salon bar.
Joy A
Platform: TikTok, YouTube, Instagram
Subscribers: YouTube 1,700; TikTok 16.3k; Instagram 18k
YouTube views: 260k
Joy is an entertainment journalist who at the end of 2024 moved from working for outlets like Metro and Bauer Media into full-time content creation on her own channels - TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. While her channels are new, she’s already interviewed some big stars on the red carpet.
The Parnas Perspective
Platform: TikTok, YouTube, Substack, Instagram
Subscribers: YouTube 228k; TikTok 3.3m; Substack 376k; Instagram 850k
YouTube views: 2m
Aaron Parnas is an American lawyer who started making videos on TikTok about Ukraine, informed by the information he was receiving from his uncle who was in the country. He also has a Substack (“Providing you with the Gen Z perspective on all the issues in the news”) with over 376k subscribers who receive exclusive live coverage plus analysis - for example, he recently went to the Panama Canal. In general, many of his videos are of the talking head variety, and he has far more content with greater engagement on TikTok than YouTube.
Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan
Platform: YouTube & Patreon
Subscribers: 2.97m
YouTube views: 279m
This channel (which is a spinoff of a previous channel called All Gas No Brakes) usually has two formats: longer form documentary films as well as Vox Pop interviews on news stories or events. They have a Patreon where subscribers get exclusive new content, which is then added to their YouTube channel at a later date. They also have a second channel called Channel 5 clips, which is outtakes and humours clips from their longer content.
The News Movement
Platform: TikTok, YouTube, Website, Instagram
Subscribers: YouTube 149k, TikTok 634k; Instagram 102k
YouTube views: 81m
Slightly different from many of these other individual creators, The News Movement is a company set up to do news for Generation Z. It was launched in 2020 by various co-founders including ex-BBC journalist Kamal Ahmed and Will Lewis, who both have now left (Ahmed to the Telegraph and Lewis to the Washington Post). The operation is active on numerous social channels plus also has a website updated daily with stories, and makes a mix of longer films on big international stories as well as shorter social type videos.
TLDR News
Platform: TikTok, YouTube, Instagram
Subscribers: YouTube 843k, TikTok 464k; Instagram 102k
YouTube views: 188m
TLDR (after the internet slang ‘Too Long, Didn’t Read’) has multiple channels including one for the UK, EU, Global, and also is available on Nebula (which is a creators subscription service offering ad free viewing and exclusive content). TLDR specialises in explainer videos of the latest hot topics, and according to a Press Gazette profile from last year, the UK company employs 11 people and is profitable: 40% of revenue from YouTube advertising, 40% sponsorship, and 20% from panel appearances and the like.
Cleo Abram
Platform: TikTok, YouTube, Instagram
Subscribers: YouTube 5.4m, TikTok 1.8m; Instagram 2m
YouTube views: 1.2bn
Cleo Abram (along with Johnny Harris, see below) cut her teeth at Vox, before stepping out on her own as a video journalist making tech and science explainers. Here is an interview she did with Colin & Samir about her huge growth and success.
Johnny Harris
Platform: YouTube, Instagram, Patreon
Subscribers: YouTube 6m; Instagram 842k; Patreon 9,520 (paying a minimum of £2 a month)
YouTube Views: 864m
Johnny Harris is a filmmaker and journalist who previously worked for Vox and The New York Times and is one of the biggest creators in the news and journalism genre. He and his team make documentaries on subjects such as broken Macdonald’s ice cream machines (13m views) or the war in Bosnia (9.4m views). They are highly engaged across a range of platforms, both producing content and interacting with their followers. He and his wife now have a team of 16 people and a monthly overhead budget of $100k, and have launched a second channel called Search Party. For more on Johnny Harris and his business model, this podcast is worth a listen.
Scott Carney
Platforms: YouTube and Substack
Subscribers: 118k
Views 9.3m
Scott Carney is an investigative journalist for publications like Wired and Fast Company, and is also a best selling non-fiction author. He has a YouTube channel plus a Substack called Magnetic North: One Journalist's Quest to Make Sense of the Universe where he uncovers stories around scams especially those related to health and wellness. He did a recent post on the economics of independent journalism and shared how much he made in the last year from his activities.
Brendan Miller Explains
Platforms: YouTube and Substack
Subscribers: 47,300
Views 2.5m
Brendan Miller is UK based and has a background working in news and current affairs programming including several years on Question Time. The description of his channel is to “explain the news at a deeper level”. He is relatively new to this game, and if you look at the view numbers on his videos (and the comments underneath) you can see how he is slowly developing his audience. Indeed, his first biggish video is a critique of Johnny Harris (which got 178k views), and then the second is one on Trump has a title and thumbnail well designed to hook YouTube users in (and got 1.5m views).
Some More News
Platform: YouTube
Subscribers: 905k
YouTube views: 173m
Cody Johnston is a comedian, and his channel as well as a podcast is a wry and entertaining take on the topical news of the week, similar in style to John Oliver or The Daily Show.
Cold Fusion
Platform: YouTube
Subscribers: 5m
YouTube views: 516m
This is a long running Australian channel making videos about topical stories. Below is a recent one on the UK’s post office scandal, which has a very different feel to any UK report on this case.
Well, that’s it for this list - what do you think of this collection and what did I miss? Do drop a comment below.
Find out more about me and the purpose of this newsletter, say hi via email hello@businessoftv.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn.