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Earlier this month, The New York Times<\/em> hired a full-time director of photography\u2014primarily for podcasts. It might sound like a surprising move for a podcast, unless you\u2019ve clocked what\u2019s been happening at The Ezra Klein Show.<\/em> Klein, once a disembodied voice, is now a bona fide millennial onscreen hottie, staring straight into the camera and engaging a new kind of audience. The message is clear, and in this case, the medium really is the message: Podcasts aren\u2019t just going visual; they\u2019re becoming television. And YouTube is the network where it\u2019s all happening.<\/p>\n This phenomenon is playing out across the news media. The Atlantic<\/em> just rolled out a YouTube podcast<\/a> hosted by writer David Frum.<\/strong> Shows from upstarts like MeidasTouch<\/a>, The Bulwark,<\/em> Crooked Media, and The Free Press<\/em> are already fixtures on the platform. When political reporter Tara Palmeri<\/strong> exited<\/a> Puck<\/em> last month, she set up shop on YouTube. Former TV news stars, from Megyn Kelly<\/strong> to Tucker Carlson, Jim Acosta,<\/strong> and Chris Cillizza<\/strong> are there too. So is Chuck Todd,<\/strong> who is planning<\/a> to grow a podcast and video network. Even Michelle Obama<\/strong> launched a \u201cvideo podcast\u201d and YouTube channel in March.<\/p>\n YouTube, which just turned 20<\/a>, has surpassed Spotify and Apple to become the top podcast platform, commanding over 1 billion hours<\/a> of average daily watch time on TVs, according to the company. In fact, YouTube is now the most-watched service in America, outpacing both Netflix and Prime Video. As YouTube CEO Neal Mohan<\/strong> recently put it<\/a>, \u201cFor more and more people, watching TV means watching YouTube.\u201d And it\u2019s not just reshaping entertainment\u2014it\u2019s transforming politics too. Presidential campaigns have always mirrored the dominant medium of their moment: FDR had radio, JFK mastered television, and 2024 was dubbed the \u201cpodcast election.\u201d Donald Trump<\/strong> reached voters\u2014especially young male ones<\/a>\u2014through shows like The Joe Rogan Experience<\/em> and This Past Weekend w\/ Theo Von,<\/em> while Kamala Harris<\/strong> made a campaign stop on Call Her Daddy.<\/em><\/p>\n That shift caught the attention of Ezra Klein Show<\/em> supervising editor Claire Gordon.<\/strong> Last summer, she and Klein came across an NBC poll<\/a> showing just how much news sources influence voter behavior. Americans who relied on legacy media leaned toward Joe Biden,<\/strong> while YouTube viewers skewed in favor of Trump. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening on YouTube? What\u2019s the news environment like [there]?\u201d she recalls them asking themselves. \u201cIt felt like we were ceding an audience,\u201d Gordon tells me. \u201cThere\u2019s a big conversation happening there, and we should be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Gordon, who joined The New York Times<\/em> in 2023, had previously served as showrunner for Netflix\u2019s Explained,<\/em> a Vox Media show cocreated by Klein, and was a producer on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver.<\/em> She first turned to the Times<\/em>\u2019 video studio to film Klein\u2019s podcast. Inside a cavernous set, they experimented with three- and five-camera setups, prime-time lighting, and a full crew of producers and fact-checkers just off camera. But something felt off. The high-gloss look clashed with the show\u2019s core appeal: vulnerability and depth.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, what we\u2019re shooting now is in one of the podcast studios, where it just feels very intimate,\u201d Gordon says. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to forget about the cameras. And [for Ezra, who wants] to produce the best conversation, the space where we shoot [needs] to be conducive to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Still cut for audio-first, the show now speaks a new syntax\u2014one shaped by a postpandemic media landscape. With studios closed and meetings streamed from bedrooms, audiences got used to seeing CEOs, experts, and hosts in raw, imperfect spaces. TikTok took off. Personality replaced polish. Viewers didn\u2019t just accept this new visual vernacular\u2014they craved it.<\/p>\n That desire for authenticity reflects a deeper cultural shift. \u201cYounger audiences have a huge distrust of not just media institutions\u2014but any institution,\u201d Liz Kelly Nelson,<\/strong> founder of Project C, a platform that supports journalists in the creator economy, told me recently. \u201cThey build trust by seeing their sources as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n Kelly Nelson, former vice president of audio at Vox,<\/em> when The Ezra Klein Show<\/em> was an audio-only podcast (and where I also worked as an audio producer), has evolved with the medium. Her focus now is on how Gen Z and Gen Alpha consume news\u2014and she believes they won\u2019t simply adopt traditional media habits as they age.<\/p>\n \u201cSo then what are the things that we need to do, to not try to change the direction that things are going, but at least add some of the layers that make journalism rigorous, that make our credibility shine through?\u201d she asks. \u201cSo when my [14-year-old] son looks at a news reader or Ezra Klein on TikTok and sees things\u2014that may be subconscious, but they are signals\u2014that this is credible journalism. And then he sees Andrew Tate,<\/strong> and he knows that\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n That push for credibility and authenticity in the new media landscape is something Mediaite<\/em> founder, owner, and publisher Dan Abrams<\/strong> is also watching closely\u2014and capitalizing on. His company recently announced a strategic expansion<\/a> into YouTube-first content, partnering with a slate of broadcast stars to build individual channels under the Mediaite<\/em> umbrella.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is television,\u201d Abrams declares. \u201cAnyone who still thinks of YouTube as something for your phone or computer isn\u2019t paying attention.\u201d By 2028, he predicts, Mediaite<\/em> (and likely others) will stream live election coverage directly to YouTube, just like any major outlet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n