What being a ‘News Creator’ means for the next generation of journalists

The “News Creator” theme emerged as one of the largest draws at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia this April.

It represents a movement of independent journalists who create and distribute content through social media about news and current affairs, often drawing on influencer techniques to build audience.

In a panel of news creators, Sophia Smith Galer, Dave Jorgenson and Tara Palmeri discussed the challenges and strategies to succeed in the industry, ultimately saying it comes down to distinctiveness.

“Do you have a distinctive offering, or are you making an identical news explainer that every other newsroom is doing? Are you creating additional value around the news story? If you're not, you’ve got to rethink the strategy,” Galer said.

Galer pioneered the UK’s TikTok journalism and began producing short-form videos for the BBC’s coverage of religion, technology and health.

Jorgenson,  a panellist who previously worked with The Washington Post before running his media outlet, Local News International, added that distinctiveness is what makes one stop scrolling.

“It has to be distinctly different from what everyone else is offering. Not necessarily how you shoot it, but like what you as a personality bring to it,” he said.When asked how Galer makes herself distinctive after years in the industry, she said she creates fewer videos each year but each with higher production value.

“The time load is now going into ensuring distinction, and for me, that has meant higher quality, more and more original reporting to make sure it's distinctive,” Galer said.

In 2025, Galer launched an app called Sophiana to help journalists create engaging scripts for vertical video formats.

“We’re seeing short-form vertical video everywhere. It’s not just about the shape; there is a grammar to how these videos are made, it’s how they begin, how they are structured,” Galer said in an interview with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong in 2024.

She added that her app bot helps create scripts with a word length suitable for the algorithms it is pushing and even generates an SEO optimised caption.

“The relationship you try to build with the viewer is a bit different to the relationships you may be used to building on the radio or television because it is algorithmic,” she added.

The panel also discussed how accountability strengthens the creator’s relationship with the audience.

“You live and die by your audience in this game. I’m chasing down leads, I’m calling my sources. If I start giving you wrong information. I lose you. The second, I lose my audience. I am of zero value,” Palmeri, panellist and host of the Tara Palmeri show, said.

“You have to be flexible in this game because the rules are always changing,” she said.

Galer added that the comment section builds accountability with audiences. She added that journalists from newsrooms rarely appear in the comments section of their videos to hear feedback.

“What does it look like to our audiences, who we're trying to desperately regain trust

When we're not even turning up when they do have a little comment. You've got to be there to respond to it,” she said.

Other festival panels on news creators discussed what defines a news creator, its impact on traditional media and the value they bring

“We are constantly shapeshifting around the algorithms that we have to game and amplify our work on, because certainly for me, vertical video is a means for wider engagement and amplification of my work,” Galer said.