🎆 Celebrating: America and Trump
🏛️ Squid Games: DC
👨🏼💻 Analyzing: audiences
⚽️ Also celebrating: Colombia!!
The Washington Post Opinions Instagram page recently posted an editorial cartoon that was equal parts earnest and naive. It feels like an image you may have seen in the 90s, in a less divided, Fox Newsy time. A Democratic donkey and Republican elephant sit together, enjoying the fireworks over the National Mall. “Today, we’re just Americans,” the elephant tell the donkey.
While I have at times joined in on the fun when it comes to ridiculing the new Opinions team that Bezos formed in his new botoxed image, I don’t completely hate this oddly optimistic cartoon …
… with some major caveats. This was NOT the nature of the events in DC on July 4th, largely thanks to our president, who made the entire celebration about himself, and has been doing so for months. You may remember our video about the $250 bill. Everyone is aware of the Reflecting Pool fiasco. The golden Trump dollar coins, his signature on the $100 bill and the special edition 250th anniversary passports with his own face are just a few examples. It’s like someone got the flu in 2004 and fell asleep with The Apprentice theme song on repeat.
That all said, here in Kansas City, Missouri, a very purple city politically, “today we’re just Americans,” wasn’t totally far off. It wasn’t quite the 1990s, “hey we disagree but we can work together to compromise” vibe, but more, “I know you disagree with me and that you are wrong, but let’s not talk about any of that today and just enjoy the celebrations.”
I don’t know if this is healthy but I do know that people are absolutely exhausted by politics, which brings us to …
CELEBRATING
Unsurprisingly, President Trump made the entire day about himself and a speech he felt destined to give. “I don’t care if it’s 2:00 O’Clock in the morning, or in one hour from now,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, following the rain delays. Personally, I’m convinced the AI Teddy Roosevelt that Trump spoke to like a real person a few days prior told him about his famous “bull moose” speech, prompting Trump to try and create that moment for himself. The entire event became a battle between mother nature and Trump’s narcissism. As he waited out the storm, he watched himself watch himself watch himself into infinity on Fox News.
Follow me on Bluesky for the spiciest takes.
For DC residents, it was yet another Trump event to avoid. For those of us in other parts of the country, we could just enjoy our neighbor’s company and lots of fireworks. Not one person in my cul-de-sac demanded we listen to them talk about their policies for 35 minutes.
And ultimately, as often is the case, President Trump’s narcissism won out, allowing him to give a speech just before midnight (from a climate-controlled box while the crowd melted in the summer heat), which required the fireworks show to happen even later after midnight, on July 5th.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
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SQUID GAMES
The scripted American version of Squid Games is still rumored to come to Netflix soon. And they’ve already done a couple of seasons of the competition reality show as well (which I found shockingly good). But an actual real life Squid Games appeared to take place on the National Mall before and after the fireworks show. Selfishness and survival were on full display throughout the day according to multiple reports and social media posts from the capital.
The day began with thousands of masked cowards marching for white supremacy in their khakis, doing anything but going to therapy. This really set the tone for the day.
Fights broke out as attendees were told to leave due to extreme weather, but refused to do so (taking cues from pardoned January 6-ers, no doubt).
Bonds and alliances were formed as they were allowed back in through long security lines after the storm passed.
When the show was over, crowds packed into 90+ degree Metro stations, trying to get a ride home before the Metro station closed at 2 am - something President Trump no doubt never thought of because he likely hasn’t taken public transit in a very long time.
If you’re feeling a little heat and spice in this particular newsletter, you’re not imagining it. I usually channel this into humor (and will do so this week), but as someone who truly loves this country, I start to see red when I read about something so pure and fun being completely crushed by one man’s stupidity, ineptitude, ignorance and complete lack of compassion for anyone other than himself.
This isn’t just a situation that “our Founding Fathers would’ve hated” as many have remarked on social media. Our Founding Fathers had a lot of problematic views, including very racist, unchallenged ideas, which I briefly addressed in the end of last Thursday’s video. But ultimately, America is great when we evolve and work together. Division and hatred, all in the name of a would-be king, is not America.
As I told one of my neighbors this last weekend, who just figured out what I do for a living (lol), I am looking forward to an administration in the near-future that allows me to start making more complex videos about policy again. They could be a Democrat or Republican. But please save us from this Idiocracy.
Now, back to our regular programming where I give you a “peak behind the curtain” of content-making.
This channel is a gift.
BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Most videos we make at Local News International perform the same way across platforms. YouTube is our biggest audience, TikTok is our second and Instagram is our third (we’re also growing quickly on Facebook and still trying to figure out Snapchat). So if a video does well, it may get around 1 to 2 million views on YouTube, 400K views on TikTok and maybe 100K on Reels. There’s plenty of variation there but that’s a good average.
Every so often though, a certain type of video does better on specific platforms. If it’s spicy (like most of today’s newsletter), it tends to do better on TikTok and Reels. Shorter videos can do well on all three platforms, but especially good on Reels. Pop culture does best on TikTok.
But lately, this format, which I did again on Friday, has been equal parts puzzling and rewarding:
Almost every single time, this “cue card” format has destroyed on Reels. I mentioned this in last week’s newsletter when I covered Usha Vance’s interview with her own husband. That video is now at 4.3 million views on Reels. It managed 2 million on TikTok as well. On YouTube? Just 650K - which is small for that platform and audience, especially compared to those other views.
This is a good problem to have. Its success on TikTok and Reels has helped add thousands of new followers in recent days, which is helping those audiences catch up in follower count. When we are selling ads, this is really good. It allows us to set more competitive prices across platforms. And more business means more videos for you all. Everyone wins!
But it’s still important to understand why it performs differently. Since 2019, I’ve made minor tweaks every day to these videos, slowly evolving them over time based on my own ideas chiefly, but also formatting them to they’re clear and communicative in their storytelling. One small example - I learned a couple years back that some videos need a text box at the start to ease people into them. If the dialogue isn’t important in those opening seconds, I intentionally delete the captions so the viewers attention is drawn to the text box:
No captions. Just you, me, Usha, President Trump and a text box.
I have some theories as to why this does better on Reels, but take all of these with a grain of salt. You never really know!
They tend to be shorter and less complicated. The joke is clear and there’s no scene changes. From beginning to end, we’re in the same scene.
Clips do well on all major platforms, but Reels really seems to push them even more so. That’s where I see the most podcast clips, for example.
Reels pushes more political commentary than YouTube and sometimes even TikTok.
As a platform, this means, people share more political commentary content too, which allows it to travel much faster. With that in mind …
It’s much easier to share in platform on Reels in multiple ways. I don’t get a ton of DMs from friends on TikTok, but I get videos sent to me every day on Reels. There’s no way to DM on YouTube.
Stories, another way of sharing, are also front and center on Reels. Sure they exist on TikTok, but they’ve never taken off in the same way.
You can also repost very easily on Reels now, which can make something semi-viral go hyper viral very quickly. If just one popular account reposts our videos on Reels, we’re off to the races.
This is not an explainer, and those are usually our worst-performing videos on Reels. YouTube, on the other hand, loves explainer videos. Users tend to spend more time there with longer videos and topics. Reels is more passive and fleeting. It’s not a “sit-down” experience like YouTube.
What do you think? I would love your insight, especially if you’re a regular user on multiple platforms. Email me at [email protected].
ALSO CELEBRATING
COLOMBIA!!! WE WON!! IN KANSAS CITY! AND MY COLOMBIAN WIFE AND I GOT TO GO TO THE GAME. IT WAS A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY!!! CHEER ON COLOMBIA TO BEAT SWITZERLAND SO THEY CAN RETURN TO KANSAS CITY FOR THE QUARTER FINAL!!! THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THE MATTER!
One of the best nights of our lives.
Still here?
This is my favorite new bit on the internet. A woman prank calls as Mickey Mouse, or Minnie, sometimes Goofy … even Donald Duck makes appearances.
It’s an absolute delight.
