For years, publishers have invested heavily in bringing video onto their own Web sites and apps.

Yet, despite producing better journalism and increasingly sophisticated video products, most consumer behaviour still points in the opposite direction: Consumers want video, just not on our platforms.

Why format first makes sense

The reason may be simpler than we think.

Consumers increasingly choose formats first, not brands first.

When someone wants to watch short-form video, they instinctively open TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels. When they want long-form entertainment, they open Netflix. For audio, they open Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Increasingly, when they want answers, they open ChatGPT or Gemini.

The first decision is no longer, “Which news brand do I trust?” It is, “What format am I looking for?”

That doesn’t mean journalism has become less valuable. It means the places where people expect to consume different formats have become deeply embedded in daily habits.

This helps explain why off-platform video continues to grow while on-site video often struggles. Consumers are not rejecting publisher content — they are consuming it in the environments that feel most natural for that format (and maybe their subscriptions should follow them).

We think of platforms as marketing channels, but is the journey too broken?

Publishers have largely accepted that TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and increasingly AI assistants are top-of-funnel discovery channels.

The strategy is straightforward: Attract attention there and drive audiences back to owned-and-operated products where subscriptions, advertising, and deeper engagement can happen.

The problem is the user experience between those worlds is often painfully abrupt.

A user moves from a beautifully designed, highly personalised TikTok feed into a publisher Web site filled with navigation menus, display advertising, cookie notices, autoplay elements, and article layouts that bear little resemblance to the experience they just left.

The transition feels less like continuing a journey and more like changing products entirely.

Perhaps the question is no longer whether social platforms can drive traffic. They clearly can.

The more important question is whether the destination is wrong.

Instead of pushing users directly into a traditional article page, should publishers experiment with transition products?

A TikTok user could arrive at a clean video experience rather than a text-heavy homepage. An AI conversation might link into a conversational topic hub instead of a standard article template. Podcast listeners might enter an audio-first experience designed around listening rather than reading.

In other words, rather than asking users to immediately adapt to publisher products, publishers could gradually guide them through experiences that feel familiar before introducing the wider ecosystem.

Whether these transition products generate enough additional engagement to justify the investment remains an open question — but it is one worth testing.

Because if consumers increasingly live inside platforms, then perhaps the funnel itself should become a product.

If you’d like to subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter, INMA members can do so here.

Banner photo: Adobe stock image by Panuwat.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .