As news consumption shifts toward platforms like TikTok, media organisations face a difficult question: How do you reach young audiences without losing what makes journalism trustworthy?

In 2024, a key competitor dominated news reporting on TikTok in both reach and engagement, while VG lagged behind. At the same time, feeds were increasingly shaped by AI-generated content, misinformation, and creators without editorial accountability.

Many publishers turned to profile-led strategies, using established faces from gaming, comedy, and content creation as news presenters. We chose the opposite. At VG we doubled down on journalism.

Resetting the strategy

When we reset our social media strategy in December 2024, we made a deliberate decision: journalists, not personalities, should be the face of our content. It should never be unclear that what you see from VG is produced by journalists with editorial responsibility.

This became our core principle: Credibility is our competitive advantage.

To make this work on TikTok, we focused on four elements:

1. We invested in audience insight. Through surveys, interviews, and input from high school and university students, we continuously refined tone, formats, and news selection. This ensured our journalism felt relevant for our target audience (ages 15-24).
2. We invested in our journalists’ storytelling skills. Strong communication builds trust, drives engagement, and ensures impact. We introduced practical training focused on body language, connection with the viewer, voice, pacing, and delivery.
3. We adapted our storytelling to the platform. TikTok demands a direct, visual, and fast-paced format. We use simple language, self-shot video and fast-paced editing.
4. We built two-way journalism into our workflow. Our journalists actively engage in the comments, answering questions, correcting misunderstandings and using audience input to create follow-up news stories. The comment section is an extension of our journalism.

Creatively, our biggest inspiration is the audience itself. We study how young people communicate, film, and edit, and use that visual language to make journalism feel closer to them.

How it went

The results are clear. From 2024 to 2025, our average views per video increased by 74%, and throughout 2025, we consistently generated more than 40 million monthly views on our news on TikTok. We also regained our position as Norway’s largest news publisher on the platform.

More importantly, we see stronger signals of trust. Users highlight transparency, presence in the field, and journalistic expertise as reasons they follow and engage with VG.

Young people do not need influencers and Internet personalities to engage with the news. They need journalism that respects their intelligence, speaks their language, and meets them where they are.

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