Inside The Washington Post TikTok Multiverse
I talk to Dave Jorgenson about why news organizations need to meet audiences where they are.
The other day, as Los Angeles was in the midst of a dangerous storm with record amounts of rain, I got served a TikTok from a news organization about what to do when your car hydroplanes. Since I work in social media, I obviously understand the value of newspapers and news channels being on a short-form video platform like TikTok, but this was one of those moments where it felt so clearly vital. It’s a TikTok that could save my life—and it met me where I was.
This made me think about all of the other news I consume on social media. I listened to Chris Christie’s hot mic audio for the first time on Washington Post’s TikTok, I learned about Los Angeles’s burial for the unclaimed dead on 404 by L.A. Times’s Instagram, and I learned about Israel’s controlled demolitions that are flattening Gaza in this NY Times Reel.
When I scroll my phone and watch informative videos from the news organizations I follow, the future of legacy media looks promising. That’s unfortunately not the reality. According to The New Republic, more than 800 journalists were laid off in the first four weeks of what also happens to be one of the most consequential election years on record. Some of them are people who are helping bring these orgs to new audiences on social media.
Marina Watanabe, who was recently laid off from 404 by L.A. Times, tweeted “It’s so funny because the 404 team has been successful by every metric. Last week I made my most-watched TikTok ever (and was so proud of it!). But the business side continually dropped the ball and refused to do the work to make us profitable…We had the difficult task of making an old ass newspaper accessible to younger generations getting their news from influencers—and we did that.”
Today’s interview is with Dave Jorgenson, Senior Video Producer at The Washington Post or “The Washington Post TikTok Guy” and another person who has been working for a long time to “make an old ass newspaper accessible”. He and his team at the Post have redefined how newspapers and legacy media can (and should) find audiences on platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Their TikTok currently sits at a whopping 1.7M followers and 86M likes. Few people understand the future of legacy media and how social media fits in like him.
We talk about the Post’s success on YouTube Shorts, how he thinks about meeting audiences where they are, and what’s next for the “Washington Post Universe” (new logo! more accounts! merch!). Let’s get into it.
Rachel Karten: First, can you tell me about your current role and any previous social (or not!) roles you've had?
Dave Jorgenson: My current role is Senior Video Producer at The Washington Post, though to be honest, I’m not sure anyone really thinks of me as anything other than “TikTok Guy” or “that guy with a lot of costumes.”
Previously, I was hired at the Post as a writer/editor for “scripted video.” This is not too dissimilar from what we do on TikTok. The mission is the same at least. I was hired to make videos, on YouTube mostly, to reach a younger audience. In 2017, I launched the Washington Post Department of Satire. Those videos had various, middling success. But I think those first two years of experimentation were key. I knew where the line was at the Post, and how far I could push it.
Just last year, we changed that channel to Washington Post Shorts and began reposting our TikToks there. It immediately jumped from 6K followers to over 100K in just a few months. It’s so cool for this initial goal I had to grow YouTube followers finally be realized. I credit Carmella (from our team) for suggesting we start posting to Shorts.
RK: How would you describe the Washington Post's TikTok strategy?
DJ: Core parts of the strategy have remained the same since 2019. Our content should look and feel like the other content on TikTok and have the same tone. Obviously, TikTok has changed a lot over five years, so our videos have too. They went from mostly 10-20 seconds videos, to mostly 45 second to minute+ videos.
We also remain very focused on being a voice that audiences can trust. When there’s misinformation surrounding an important topic, they know they can come to us for advice. What started as a joke with “Washington Post TikTok Cinematic Universe” has really expanded into “here are all the real journalists at the Post that you know well and can trust.”
Initially, I just wanted to include a ton of “characters” in all our videos and get buy-in from the newsroom on our account (because in 2019, people over 22 really did not know what TikTok was). Now people have a real relationship (and favorites) with the three people on our team as well as the dozens of journalists who make regular cameos.
In any given video you can see someone saying “Carmella is my favorite!” or “glad you’re back from paternity leave, Dave” or “I love this new guy Joseph.” That’s obviously super gratifying but, importantly, I think it’s the key to our success.
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RK: Talk to me about YouTube Shorts. Can you walk me through your strategy there? Any advice for brands who haven't posted there yet?
DJ: As I mentioned, it’s been a pleasant surprise to see the success of that YouTube page. We have such a clear voice on our TikTok account that we really didn’t have to change much. The videos are already vertical and around 60 seconds. We do make shorter edits for Shorts sometimes if a TikTok goes over a minute though.
My advice would be to have a consistent strategy and post regularly. Understandably, when I was on paternity leave, there was less posts on the channel. Then as soon as I came back and could help with content creation again, it took off again with a vengeance. We’ve gained over 50K followers in a month. Posting once a day, every week day really makes a difference.
RK: I think what makes the Washington Post's TikTok so good is that there's a recurring cast of characters. I feel like I know you or like I know Carmella. When I worked at Bon Appétit people would refer to the test kitchen as a "cinematic universe", the Washington Post’s TikTok feels very similar. I'm curious to hear a little bit about the hiring (casting?) process! Can you give me a few insights into qualities you look for, any hiring assignments, or just a peek into bringing people into the cinematic universe??
DJ: As far as hiring people, it’s sort of wild how easy it was to pick out Carmella, and more recently Joseph, from a sea of applicants. Both times, in 2021 and 2023, I asked applicants to send in original TikToks along with their resume.
Carmella’s videos were my favorite from day one. Don’t get me wrong, there were a ton of great people applying. She just had a clear style from the beginning. I would say it’s equal parts on-camera ability and editing skills. Both Carmella and Joseph had both of those qualities. And they also have the ability to adapt and learn and get better.
When we bring in other Post journalists to cameo in TikToks, there’s no qualifications. They just need to be willing to be on-camera and have fun with it. In 2019, we had hundreds of Post journalists on camera and I’m hoping to really get back to our roots with that in 2024. It’s so fun to watch otherwise very serious, important (for good reason!) journalists get outside of their comfort zone for a TikTok.
RK: I'd love to learn a little bit about your creative process of turning an article or reporting into short-form video. How do you choose what to highlight and how to tell that story? For example, deciding to lip sync this audio or acting this out.
DJ: Sometimes, it’s a perfect storm of the news and a recent trending sound. I know for instance, that Carmella has 5 to 10 sounds at any given time that she’s found on TikTok from her various burner accounts.
For me, especially over the last couple of years, I tend to gravitate towards “original sound” videos, meaning it’s scripted and not using an audio. I think I did trending sounds so much over the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 that I found I get more excited generally to script out something from scratch.
In that scripting process, we do our very best to pack in as much information as possible into a video. I will sometimes even have background characters making references. And on top of that, TikTok captions can now be much longer, so we can include several paragraphs of an article if readers need more context.
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RK: Any chance you'll experiment with TikTok's new horizontal video push?
DJ: We will, and have, experimented with everything TikTok has put out there—whenever it makes sense to try. For instance, I’ve had the big head effect saved on my phone for literally years and didn’t use it until the other week.
RK: So many people get their news from TikTok—and yet there's still this hesitancy for legacy media organizations to fully embrace that. Your team has really helped prove that it works and is worth it. Do you have any numbers, data, or insights that you can share that other organizations could point to or use when building a case for why their newspaper or media company should embrace platforms like TikTok?
DJ: I think just views alone really help. But I would also point to our demographic. We know through surveys that our primary audience is people in the 20s, followed very closely by people in their 30s. That audience leans more women than men. It’s the same age range with YouTube, but the reach is far more men than women.
So already across two platforms, we’re reaching a huge group of younger people, which contrasts with the older audiences most newspapers reach through their articles and physical paper.
I’ve really pushed “meeting people where they are” from day one and I’ve been happy to see other organizations—and other people at the Post—adopt this mantra. I think it still stands. People are on TikTok, YouTube, Reels and all kinds of places. They aren’t necessarily looking for a paper subscription, so why not grow trust with them on platforms where they’re already active?
RK: What do you love about telling stories on TikTok?
DJ: I love that there are individual stories that over time become part of a bigger story. For instance, the Sam the Spam can joke was a throwaway TikTok from day two of “quarantine TikToks” in May 2020. But Sam still appears in TikToks as an easter egg in the background four years later.
There’s a lot of connective tissue in these inside jokes, characters, and running themes over the years. I don’t know another platform that supports this kind of wholesome goofiness and I really love how much our audience has bought into it.
RK: What's next for the Washington Post Cinematic Universe?
DJ: Part of what our audience has bought into is this idea of the Washington Post TikTok Cinematic Universe (or the WPTTCU). So, we’re making it an actual tangible thing now.
Over the next few months, we will rename our accounts on Shorts and Reels “Washington Post Universe.” We will have a new logo and graphics and even a merch store.
This is so exciting for me because it plays perfectly into this joke I’ve had from early on, which was just a silly reference to Marvel. But truly we have built a universe. And now on different platforms, it’s like we have a multiverse (another Marvel reference!). In that multiverse, you will see different versions of content, whether it’s shorter TikToks on Shorts or content made exclusively just for one of those platforms.
I also love that this allows us to be more clearly distinguished from the main @washingtonpost YouTube and Instagram pages, which are both very successful in their own right. We can continue to develop and grow our brand of wholesome funny newspaper humor under the Washington Post masthead but in its own clear world (or, you know, universe).
And as mentioned above, this allows us to really lean into bringing more reporters into our TikToks both from the Post and other organizations. I’m just so, so excited about this concept and have been for weeks when Carmella first pitched “universe” as a name. It’s also way better than the previous names we came up with, which I will never share because I am too embarrassed.
Thanks so much for reading! A few quick links to wrap out this newsletter:
If you liked this interview, check out a few recent favorites like this one with Zaria Parvez from Duolingo and this one with Christina Vittas (aka @elmo!) from Sesame Workshop.
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I guess people listen to podcasts from brands? I’m still skeptical…
Okay bye! See you next week!
When we were first, putting Sephora on TikTok, the Wapo TikTok account was one of the brands I shared with my team, and was completely preaching about because they just from early on nailed it in terms of approach.