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Howtown: A Deep Dive into Launching a YouTube Science Channel in the Age of Shorts

From Skunk Bear to Howtown: Seeking Independence in a Changing Media Landscape

When science journalists Adam Cole and Joss Fong decided to go independent, YouTube was the obvious place to start. They’re both natives of the platform: Fong cofounded the Vox YouTube channel, and Cole spent years producing Skunk Bear, the NPR science YouTube channel. Last May, after months of planning together, they launched a channel of their own. They called it Howtown. “It’s terrifying,” Fong told Gizmoposts24 a couple of weeks before Howtown launched. “We’re not young kids with infinite energy and confidence. We are well into our 30s and know that most things probably fail, and we have the attitude that we’ve got to give it our best shot.” In the months since they launched, Cole and Fong have published videos about the science of how dogs see color, an ancient hookup between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, and (especially relevant for Nieman Lab readers) how X broke the news. Gizmoposts24 checked in with them in November, six months after Howtown launched, and again more recently, after a recent video about the spiciness of Hot Ones hot sauces hit 1.5 million views — the kind of numbers that might be considered viral.

Gizmoposts24 was curious about what it’s like to launch an independent YouTube channel today, and they were refreshingly transparent about the realities. Here’s what they’ve learned.

The Howtown Formula: Longform Science Meets YouTube’s Short Attention Spans

Going independent was a scary decision, Cole and Fong told Gizmoposts24, but in many ways it also felt like the only way to keep doing the work they wanted to do. In December 2023, Vox laid off nine members of the award-winning video team that Fong had helped build, and it seemed the writing was on the wall: the space to make the kind of longform videos that Cole and Fong wanted to make was shrinking. Or, at least, it was shrinking within the bounds of traditional media organizations. On YouTube, some of Cole and Fong’s friends and former colleagues, like Cleo Abram and Johnny Harris, had successfully built out channels with huge audiences (4.96 million and 6.31 million respectively, as of publication). Clearly, there were many people hungry for videos outside of the realm of TikTok. Cole and Fong launched Howtown with a vision for a channel that focused on longform, science-focused videos guided by principles rooted in their journalistic training: They would rely on primary sources and interviews for their videos, post corrections to any factual errors with explanations of what they got wrong, and refuse to take money for coverage, thereby maintaining the traditional wall between sponsorship and editorial. “If it does work, [it might be because] we are rightly seen as on our own and independent of any influence from the corporate media,” Fong told Gizmoposts24 in November. “From an audience funding perspective, it’s much more persuasive to say we’re doing this all ourselves than to say we get a paycheck [from someone else].”

At launch, the idea was to rely on a diverse set of revenue streams, from traditional monetization through Google AdSense to sponsorship deals and a Patreon (starting at $4 a month) where viewers who believed in Cole and Fong’s work could support them directly. But Howtown launched in the era of YouTube Shorts — vertical videos, usually between 15 and 60 seconds long, that are the platform’s answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels — and in May, Cole and Fong told Gizmoposts24 they knew they’d need to experiment with adding shorter videos to their mix to try and bring in more followers, even if it went against their background of carefully crafted longform.

The Reality Check: Lessons Learned from Six Months on YouTube

“A lot of people are following us through Shorts,” Cole told Gizmoposts24 in November, six months after Howtown launched. “It’s this easy way to get a big number that feels good. But it doesn’t really serve our mission of welcoming people into the nuance and uncertainty and challenges of scientific methods.” Views on shorts also don’t add up to much monetarily: One short, of a vampire bat running on a treadmill, got 2.6 million views but earned only $272 through AdSense. The 1.5 million-view Hot O Defector / Diana Moskovitz “There’s always been a certain type of American who proved they were better-educated or better-read, or of a better class by insisting they didn’t watch TV or consume local news…But in times of crisis, local news remains the best and most reliable source of local information. It has the requisite knowledge and experience and the (dwindling but still tangible) resources to cover this story in a way national news does not; quite simply, it is built for this.”

Cole and Fong have found that while Shorts can help grow their audience, it’s the longer-form content that truly resonates with viewers who are interested in deep dives into scientific topics.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Howtown and Independent Science Journalism

The success of Howtown has implications for the future of science journalism as a whole. As traditional media outlets continue to shrink, independent creators like Cole and Fong are filling the void, providing in-depth coverage of science topics that may not be deemed “newsworthy” by mainstream media.

Gizmoposts24 spoke to Cole and Fong about the challenges and opportunities they see for independent science journalism in the years to come:

• The Impact of AI: AI has the potential to both help and hinder science journalism. On the one hand, AI can be used to automate tasks like fact-checking and summarizing complex research papers. On the other hand, there are concerns that AI-generated content could spread misinformation or be used to create deepfakes.
• The Role of Community Support: Patreon has been a vital lifeline for Howtown, allowing them to build a community of supporters who believe in their work and are willing to financially back it. Cole and Fong emphasize the importance of audience support for independent creators, saying that it allows them to focus on creating quality content without having to worry about the bottom line.
• A Call to Action: How can audiences support quality science journalism? Cole and Fong urge people to subscribe to independent science channels on YouTube, to share their videos with others, and to consider becoming patrons of the creators they support. They also encourage people to be critical consumers of information and to fact-check everything they read online.