How NPR’s “Planet Money” has thrived on TikTok

Dan Whateley of Business Insider writes about how National Public Radio’s “Planet Money” is one of the few media programs to successfully transition to TikTok.

Whateley writes, “Planet Money is one of a few ‘traditional’ media brands that has successfully ported its content over to TikTok. The team’s lo-fi content style (Corbett films at home using a bed sheet as a green screen), TikTok-friendly formats, and engagement with users in the app’s comments section have helped the team build a fan base quickly.

“‘As a maker of audio journalism, I loved that there was a popular social-media app that was audio-on by default always,’ said Alex Goldmark, senior supervising producer at Planet Money.

“Planet Money’s first TikTok post, an explainer on how stock market circuit breakers work, was originally slated for YouTube as part of the video team’s ‘Planet Money Shorts’ series. But after seeing a draft of the post, the team decided its style would work well on TikTok.

“Around that time, the Planet Money team also joined TikTok’s Creative Learning Fund, a fund that pays creators, media publishers, and other institutions to post educational content on the app. Learning-focused content (a broad category that includes how-to videos) has become a focus area for TikTok. The company is testing a ‘Learn’ tab in some markets.”

Read more here.