Younger audiences behave this way most strongly, but they're not alone. Vertical video has quietly become a cross-generational news discovery system. All age groups are consuming more online news video each year, and the share of people watching social videos as a new source has risen from 52% to 65% since 2020, according to the 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report.
It may seem like publishers are " pivoting to video " all over again, with news outlets like Time, CNN, The New York Times adding more vertical video to their sites and apps in the last few months. But it's different this time around. The big push into video production 10 years ago was centered on distribution to social media platforms, following Facebook's shift to prioritizing video content.