Daily Mail Wants a Third of Direct Advertising Revenue to Come From Social Video: Newspapers Are Becoming Creator Companies

For a long time, social media served as a front door for newspapers: you published a link, attracted the user, and tried to bring them back to the website. That model is changing.

Adweek reported on the Daily Mail's plan to boost social video to represent 33% of direct advertising revenue by 2027 through a new dedicated structure. It is a large enough percentage to change the way we think about a publisher.

Content no longer has to drive you to the website

A video on TikTok or Instagram can generate economic value without the user ever opening a homepage. It can be sponsored, integrated into a format, sold to a brand, or build an audience that is monetized directly on the platform.

For a traditional newsroom, this is a massive cultural shift. It means producing content that is not "article promotion," but standalone editorial products.

The journalist meets the creator

The required skills align closely with those of the creator economy: a recognizable face, pacing, community, serialized formats, and platform-native language. But a publisher's competitive edge should remain its verification capabilities, access to sources, and editorial continuity.

The challenge is combining both worlds without turning journalism into a mere engagement machine.

Brands want audiences, not homepages

Advertisers are changing as well. If a publisher has a strong community on YouTube or TikTok, that audience can be just as compelling as website traffic. The commercial relationship thus shifts from selling ad space to building formats.

This can be financially more rewarding, but it also increases the risk of blurring the lines between content and partnerships. The more a publisher adopts typical creator models, the more transparent it must be about collaborations.

The platform becomes part of the newsroom

When a third of revenue depends on social video, platform decisions cease to be an external issue. A shift in an algorithm, advertising policies, or monetization rules can directly impact editorial economics.

The dependency does not disappear: it changes form. The website provided control over the product but required building traffic; social media offers massive distribution, but on rented ground.

The publisher of the future will be multiplatform by nature

There will probably no longer be a clear distinction between a “newspaper”, a “YouTube channel”, an “Instagram account”, and a “newsletter”. They will be different surfaces of the same editorial system.

The Daily Mail is formalizing this transformation with a very clear economic objective. The question for all other publishers is how much longer they can afford to treat social video as a side department.