YouTube steps up to support news and journalists

Google-owned YouTube has unveiled new features aimed at providing viewers with an immersive experience for accessing the latest news content and supporting journalists in their storytelling efforts.

The platform is introducing a news watch page, designed to aggregate content from authoritative sources spanning video on demand, live streams, podcasts, and Shorts.

This comprehensive approach allows viewers to explore diverse sources and perspectives within a single page.

In addition to this, YouTube is launching the Shorts Innovation Programme for News, an initiative aimed at enhancing news organizations' capabilities in creating short-form videos.

This program offers financial grants and specialised support to over 20 organisations across 10 countries, totaling $1.6 million in funding.

Participants are chosen based on their strong presence in long-form video content on YouTube, indicating a desire to expand into creating Shorts for news.

Notable collaborators include Univision in the US, AFP in France, and Mediacorp in Singapore.

YouTube specialists will collaborate with these organisations over the next year to develop Shorts content strategies and best practices for video production.

The Shorts Innovation Programme seeks to empower forward-thinking news publishers, providing them with the resources and expertise needed to embrace short-form news capabilities.

Furthermore, the platform has also made a notable shift in its policy regarding ad-blockers. 

In a significant departure from its previous stance, users employing ad-blockers on their web browsers are now greeted with messages informing them that such extensions are not permitted on YouTube.

Upon detecting an ad-blocker in use, the platform displays a pop-up message providing details on why ad-blockers are discouraged.

Ad-blockers have been a longstanding solution for users aiming to bypass website advertisements in pursuit of an uninterrupted browsing experience. These extensions, available on popular web browsers like Chrome and Edge, can often be obtained at

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