(clicking) (suspenseful music)
- I want you to see something.
Okay, I'm just gonna go ahead
and say it for anyone who just wants the quick version.
I started a new channel with my old Vox colleague
Sam Ellis, the creator of Vox Atlas.
It is live.
Now it is called Search Party.
It's going to be amazing.
You can go watch it.
For those who wanna stick around, let me explain.
I mean, how did we get here?
So three years ago, I left the news outlet that birthed me
as a journalist to try to figure
out what independent journalism felt like.
I'm in Mexico now.
And it's been quite the ride.
Can I get an ice cream cone?
(upbeat music)
This airport is completely empty.
(upbeat music)
I didn't expect it to go the way that it has
and I didn't expect to find an audience who was
so eager to experiment with me
on what journalism could be and how it could be different.
(upbeat music)
Wow.
I'm really amazed at the audience who has stuck
with us during all of these years
as this channel has grown and here behind the scenes,
I'm even more amazed at the creative, talented,
committed people who make this all happen on our team.
(upbeat music)
There tends to be so much doom and gloom about the future
of news and journalism,
and yet that's not the future I see.
Every week I share a video with you and what I see is
a huge community of millions of people who want to learn,
who are interested in facts and truth
and evidence.
So I guess what I'm saying is I see a world where more
and more news and journalism happens here
with independent journalists like myself
who want to continue to create work
that maintains journalistic rigor,
but want to do that journalism in a place
where they can have a more personal back and forth
with their audience.
This is not happening.
What I like about this setup is that it requires me
to earn your trust.
To be transparent about how I do my work and what it allows
for is really exciting.
It allows me to get your thoughts, your voices,
your feedback on my stories, everything from voting
on the titles and thumbnails, which a lot of you do
in the community tab to helping critique my work
so that it's more accurate in a world that is becoming
increasingly polarized.
I believe there is value in audiences being able to turn
to independent journalists who aren't beholden
to the profit incentives of large media companies.
I need to show you a video that is blowing my mind.
But wait, there's a problem
kind of with this whole independent journalism thing
which is that the biggest thing that you lose
in going independent is colleagues
Other journalists who will help make your work better.
A story editor, just people to look over your scripts.
It's a major drawback to not being at a news outlet
and it's one of the main reasons I still do work
with like the New York Times so that I can get that feedback
from more seasoned journalists.
But that is a problem that we're trying to solve.
Over these years is has worked really hard to build a team.
She's hired, she's systematized, she's managed.
The result of all of this is now we have a big team
of creative, talented people who share this vision
of rigorous journalism on YouTube.
And to be clear, this team is the only reason we are able
to make these super long in-depth videos every week
for all of you.
I'm honestly kind of blown away
that it all happens, but it somehow does.
This is getting absurd.
I cannot believe we're even having this conversation.
So in short, we've built an independent journalism studio
that can be simultaneously investigating labor abuses
in Qatar as well as watching hours of North Korean cinema
or scouring financial disclosures of American lawmakers
while still allowing me to go to the Swiss Alps to look
for military bunkers or in bed with remote communities
in northern Greenland.
Putting on the heavy duty stuff here
'cause we're just out here on the ice all day
and it gets cold.
(speaks in foreign language)
And now I'm getting to the point of this whole video
which is to tell you that we're taking the next step forward
on our mission to become the home
of the best independent video journalism on the internet.
Let me introduce you to Sam Ellis.
- Hey, I'm Sam Ellis.
- I mean if you want to know Sam
just look at his work at Vox.
Sam and I work together at Vox for many years.
He's a journalist,
he's a writer, editor, designer, animator
and the creator of Vox Atlas.
A show that has brought international issues
to millions of people for the last five years.
And all of that is in addition
to the Emmy nominated work that he's done on Vox Explained
as well as Vox show level playing field on HBO.
He has a lot of experience.
He's well-sourced, he's deeply committed
to journalistic rigor and accuracy.
So me, Sam, (indistinct) have been talking
and talking and dreaming and thinking.
And the result is what we're launching today.
(gentle music)
This is Search Party.
Search Party is a new independent video journalism channel
that is dedicated to uncovering,
decoding and telling the most important stories
in geopolitics and global sports.
Yes, I said sports.
Sam, in addition,
to being a foreign affairs reporter, is a giant sports fan.
His work on search party will use his unique
visual style to explore the geopolitical stories
of the day, military, economics, diplomacy,
but then will also apply that same lens
to global sports from serious corruption
and policy matters within sports.
To coverage on how sports relates to culture
and history and identity.
Sam's videos on Search Party will look
and feel somewhat similar to what you see on this channel.
After all, our separate journeys
in journalism have had a lot of similarities.
We were shaped by video journalism on the internet.
We were taught by some of the best new media journalists
at Vox and we're committed to the same principles
of rigorous reporting and beautiful presentation.
You'll even hear Tom Fox music and see beautiful maps
and we might even collaborate from time to time.
And yet Search Party videos will be different.
They will feel like nothing else that exists right now.
They'll be quite shorter than mine.
And you'll see very quickly
that Sam doesn't appear on camera much.
He works more behind the scenes.
His videos will be much more concise and focused
and efficient on giving you the best understanding
of complex topics in a short amount of time.
If you've ever watched Vox Atlas, which you should
if you haven't, you'll see that Sam literally obsesses
over unlocking the path to deep understanding of big issues.
He whittles down topics to find the essence
of the explanation, and then he presents it
to you in the most beautiful way possible.
So Search Party is live.
Right now, the first video's up, it's really good.
I helped work on it.
And if some of you are wondering how you can support this,
here are a few ways.
Number one, if you feel excited about this big step
in independent journalism that we are taking, tell people
about it, post about it, share about it, whatever.
The way our algorithmic driven world works is
the more people are talking about stuff, the better it does.
Secondly, you should go over
and subscribe and watch these videos.
Don't subscribe
if you're not gonna watch that could do terrible things
to the algorithm.
But if you are interested in this, go subscribe,
get notified and click on the video when it comes out.
That is literally the lifeblood of how our business works.
And finally, in these early days,
we don't have a lot of revenue coming in.
We're looking for sponsors.
We're maybe looking for grants,
but if you want to be a supporter,
we are gonna have a membership program for Search Party.
Anyone who supports Search Party will get a badge
saying how long they've been supporting Search Party.
That badge will stick with you
in the comments and it will show
that you are someone who wants to support this project
who wants to support good factual,
authoritative journalism on YouTube.
And lastly, give us story ideas.
Go over to Search Party
and comment what story you want to see next.
Up vote story ideas that you find interesting.
We want to build Search Party
as something that the audience wants
and that the audience helps craft.
That's how I've always done it.
That's how I know how to do it.
That's what I think you want.
That's how Search Party is gonna be built.
On that note, I will see some of you in tomorrow's video
about the new Cold War, this video we've worked
on for a really long time and it comes out tomorrow.
I hope you like it
and I'll see others of you over on Search Party.
See you later.
(gentle music)