Here’s how the Daily Mail intends to tackle election coverage on TikTok

Unsurprisingly, the Daily Mail is eager to ride the wave of attention on the app generated by this political showdown. 

As Jasmine Enberg, vp and principal analyst, social media and creator economy at eMarketer pointed out, smart publishers are behaving like creators, using platforms like TikTok to build new audiences as more people turn to social media, rather than publisher sites or traditional channels, for news.

“The US presidential election is an opportune moment for publishers to gain new followers, particularly young people, as TikTok is already a go-to platform for news creators and candidates looking to reach young voters through memes and viral content,” she said. “The challenge for publishers will remain directing those followers to their own platforms where they can better monetize.”

While the Daily Mail is considered a right-leaning publisher, the team’s head of social video Phil Harvey stressed that the website editorial is very separate from its TikTok presence. “Our strategy on TikTok [for the election] is not to preach or campaign,” said Harvey. “We’re here to bring the news to the masses, and echoing the interests of this new audience that we’re suddenly finding a huge amount of traction with.”

The results speak for themselves: over the summer, The Daily Mail’s livestream of both the Democratic and Republican conventions drew impressive numbers over the four days they were on. There were one million viewers of the 2024 Republican National Convention in July, and 5.5 million views for the 2024 Democratic National Convention in August.

Looking ahead, the Daily Mail is gearing up for a major push during the 72-hour period before, during and after voting, ramping up its normal TikTok posts quota from 120 to around 180 as well as incorporating live broadcasts to capture the reaction as it unfolds.  

The live broadcasts will feature graphics for things like national polling as well as real-time feeds with updates along with segments from reporters stationed at key locations throughout those three days. However, that’s where the similarities with traditional broadcasts end – the content underneath the live stream will be tailored to entice a younger audience, ensuring it clicks with TikTok’s demographic.  

“We will hero short-form storytelling within our live stream to hook the viewer into the headline as we reach them in the feed,” said Harvey. “And on TikTok, users will then continue their journey through our election coverage on our profile, with hundreds of videos ready to watch.”

Moreover, those videos will be produced vertically, despite having the option to do so horizontally. The choice was made after the publisher’s social media team tested both formats. 

“We’ve shot all vertical live streams, tickers and different graphics all over the place, and a strap for the headline, and that doesn’t seem to perform any better than a landscape video,” said Harvey, who added that the live stream incorporates a chat room at the bottom. 

The goal here is to create a richer experience for viewers, giving them a reason to tune in not just to watch, but to join the conversation happening around the broadcast. 

“We find that people engage with live streams, not only to see the story, but to talk about the story that’s taking place,” he added. But when comparing if vertical or landscape formats work better for this, Harvey said he finds that landscape “heroes the chat a bit more.”

Once the results are in, the Daily Mail’s TikTok presence will return to its usual rhythm, filled with videos that riff on various topics covered in the 1,700 articles produced daily by its journalists. And to create those videos, Harvey relies on his team of 24 social video content creator-journalists across the publication’s London, New York and Australia offices – half of whom are TikTok specialists.

“The sheer power of the Mail’s global newsroom, the vast size of it, is a huge asset to us on social video,” Harvey said. “Whether it’s the really serious, geopolitical, hardcore news or the crazy stories that we all love to read, they all translate really well on TikTok,” Harvey said.

Though this production cycle is intense – after all, there are 120 TikTok posts daily – it’s a strategy that appears to be paying off, particularly in expanding the brand’s reach to younger audiences. 

Currently, the Daily Mail boasts around 14.4 million followers on its U.S. account, 1.2 million on its U.K. account and an additional 4.4. Million spread across its other 10 accounts – including Daily Mail Sport, Daily Mail AU and Daily Mail Showbiz. 

“In September alone, we achieved 5.3 billion views across our accounts,” Harvey said, adding that it was more than double the previous monthly high of 2.5 billion views.

None of those views were boosted either. 

“We don’t put any paid spend behind Daily Mail branded accounts,” said Harvey. “The only time we would boost posts would be for commercial partners, or if we’ve done a campaign, but it’s not our day-to-day content.”

His point on boosting posts for commercial partners is arguably a matter of necessity. In fact, there are very few other ways for publishers to monetize their brand-funded posts. Without those options, Harvey and his team must focus intently on maximizing reach. 

However, that wait may not last much longer. TikTok has been building a publisher sales team to try and convince major news publishers to create content for the app, according to The Information.

“We’re hopeful that monetization options for publishers [on TikTok] will start to become clearer in the next 12 months,” said Harvey, who made the point that accurate and timely news costs a lot to create. 

Being on the platform comes with an associated cost, he said, such as staffing, content and equipment needed, which isn’t mitigated fully by TikTok’s limited monetization options for publishers. Nonetheless, it appears that TikTok execs are open to discussions with publishing execs like Harvey to reach a workable compromise – so far, at least. 

Harvey said he feels that TikTok has been the most responsive partnership team of any platform he’s worked with. 

“They [TikTok execs] are really helpful and really communicative,” he said, adding unlike other platforms which can be hard to get a reply from sometimes, without naming names.

Yet, Harvey is acutely aware that this could all become irrelevant. The looming question over whether TikTok will be banned in the U.S. next year still hangs in the year. 

If the ban was to go ahead, it’s unlikely the Daily Mail would lose all of its [U.S.] followers,” he said. “When Nancy Pelosi gave her remarks in the House, she said ‘We’re not doing this to ban TikTok. We’re doing it to make it more fit for an American audience’. There’s a whole debate about whether or not it will actually happen. And if it does, TikTok is likely to continue in some form or another.”

It chimes with the general consensus from both the industry and the TikTok team, which seems to be that everything is still very much business as usual. Most marketers note that the likelihood is this case will be tied up in legal paperwork for months if not longer. That’s despite the platform’s attendance in the U.S. Court of Appeals in September, which didn’t appear to go too well.

“Increased regulatory pressure could be behind this new publisher push,” said Niamh Burns, senior research analyst in tech and media at Enders Analysis. “From TikTok’s perspective, it helps to have fact-checked, informative news publisher content on TikTok to counter any narrative around disinformation or platform bias.”

But as she pointed out, publishers don’t make money on TikTok, at least not yet. “Until this improves it’ll remain an arms-length relationship for a lot of publishers,” Burns added. “TikTok isn’t a referral channel, and publishers need to balance getting their brand in front of young people with the risk of getting lost in the content mix.”