Sarah Scire of Nieman Lab interviewed Tristan Werkmeister, who joined Reuters as the newsroom’s first social video reporter in January.
Here is an excerpt:
SARAH SCIRE: How “first” is this position? It sounds like it’s the first time this title has been used at Reuters, right? Can you talk about what social-first video work looked like there before this role? Was there someone who was doing any part of this work under a different title or different team?
TRISTAN WERKMEISTER: Reuters is known for its video coverage of global events, and as a newsroom, we’ve long produced video for our social media channels. But what makes my role different is that I’m the first hire in the social media team who is fully dedicated to thinking first and foremost about video reporting. That means that my priority is our audience on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. I engage with storytelling trends on these platforms so we can not only stay relevant but also be frontrunners in the industry.
My role focuses on expanding vertical video globally, especially outside the U.S. I’m constantly thinking about the most impactful ways to tell stories to our global audience, from Kyiv residents sleeping underground to the collapse of the French government.
The look of our social videos hasn’t changed dramatically, but the strategy has. We now produce about four times more vertical videos per day [than we used to], and thanks to colleagues in Asia, our operation runs almost 24/7. Behind the scenes, that growth has meant dozens of people working together, new tracking systems, and smart use of AI tools.
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