YAHOO has signed up nearly 100 YouTube, TikTok and Instagram creators to draw traffic to its website, recognition that millions of people rely on social media influencers to stay informed.
The online personalities are participating in a programme that Yahoo began last year.
As part of a new homepage that debuted this month, Yahoo News launched a “Stories From Creators” section that curates their content.
The company, owned by Apollo Global Management, pays influencers a share of advertising sales in exchange for posting content to its site.
More than 190 million people use Yahoo News each month to read articles on sports, finance, culture and politics, according to the company. The news organisation mostly aggregates articles from other publications but also employs journalists who write original articles.
“Yahoo is an aggregator at its heart, and really our goal is to curate the vast amount of the content on the internet,” Kat Downs Mulder, senior vice-president and general manager of Yahoo News, said in an interview. “Creators are generating a tremendous amount of interesting content that’s relevant to our readers.”
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Under the program, Yahoo is offering contributors half of the advertising sales their material generates. The company doesn’t disclose how much it’s making from advertising or how many page views are being driven by creators.
Page views can vary widely, but a high-performing article can get upward of 300,000 views, several creators said. They earn income from advertising revenue and affiliate links, which send readers to websites where they can purchase products.
The gay couple Brent and Michael said they make up to US$3,000 a month for their travel reporting on Yahoo, in addition to their revenue on Substack.
Social media influencers are becoming a primary source of news for many Americans, which is why some outlets and organisations are turning to content creators to drive page views and traffic. Some of the creators participating in the Yahoo program, — like YouTube’s Kara and Nate — have millions of followers.
“They really saw the way the wind was blowing,” said Cory Allen, a participant who has more than 500,000 followers on Instagram reading his short self-help postings. “The public is more interested in the individual perspective of a creator these days than they are a legacy media source.”
The Democratic National Convention, for example, invited over 200 creators to cover the election last year, while NBC relied on dozens of influencers to report on the Olympics in Paris, granting them press credentials alongside traditional journalists.
The White House is also embracing creators, and last month received more than 7,400 requests for press credentials from content creators, influencers and podcasters.
Working with independent content creators can come with risks, including the potential for spreading misinformation.
“I don’t know if media comprehension is keeping up with the blurred lines of journalism versus content creators,” said Kay Kingsman, a travel writer with more than 16,000 followers on Instagram who’s now also part of Yahoo News. “I would be disappointed to see publications ignore the potential negatives of blurring those lines just to make more money or to make more views.”
Yahoo News doesn’t fact-check articles written by creators, but does have content guidelines that prohibit defamation, misleading information or anything that could incite violence, the company said.
The company is staying away from creators focused on news and politics and instead targets lifestyle topics such as travel, interior design or parenting tips. The organisation has a team that reviews creator’s content for spelling and suggests ideas.
“I think journalists and creators each bring unique value to Yahoo News and to the news conversation in general,” Mulder said. “The more information that can be discovered and published, we want to support that.” BLOOMBERG
