It’s a cliché to say change is the only constant in the world of media, but it’s true all the same. Just ask Tory Starr, GBH’s Senior Director of Digital Content, now in her 16th year at GBH, and she’ll recount all the social media trends and platforms she’s seen come and go.
“Since I began here as an intern,” she says, “my work has revolved upon this idea that there are new ways to tell stories, and we should embrace them. The ways people consume media change faster than we think, and adapting how and where we tell stories to truly meet our mission is super important.”
The work of GBH’s local and national units to adopt a comprehensive approach to YouTube represents a larger shift within GBH to build a more resilient, innovative, and forward-looking business model in response to developments in the media industry and the loss of federal funding. Since the pandemic, GBH has placed a renewed emphasis on integrating YouTube into its media strategy, understanding the platform and its potential as a seismic change in the industry.
The proof is in the pudding. Early adopters of YouTube — especially FRONTLINE — have reaped the benefits of YouTube’s reach for the better part of a decade. The flagship investigative news program boasts more than 3.24 million subscribers, its videos regularly eclipse 1 million views, and the channel livestreams documentaries 24/7.
We know there's a big hunger for our feature films on YouTube. 20 Days in Mariupol has 4 million views, with a very high average watch time, and 2000 Meters to Andriivka, which premiered in 2025, has almost 2 million views. Plus, our YouTube audience is 33% global. So these are incredibly popular films, and that's very gratifying considering the length as well as the subject material.Raney Aronson-Rath, Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer of FRONTLINE
GBH’s other national production units like NOVA (1.35M YouTube subscribers), AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (509K YouTube subscribers) ANTIQUES ROADSHOW (401K YouTube subscribers), and MASTERPIECE (190K YouTube subscribers) have enjoyed tremendous success by extending their broadcast distribution to YouTube and complementing it with original video content.
In addition, the teams behind GBH’s main YouTube channel and GBH Music have redoubled their efforts, producing exponentially more video content to widen their exposure to audiences. GBH News now has nearly 160K YouTube subscribers, a 380% increase since 2022, thanks to investments that expanded its programming (including 3 hours of daily live content) on the platform. In 2025 alone, GBH News videos were viewed more than 10 million times, and the channel’s engagement rate increased by 52%.
“As an organization, this pivot to YouTube has made us better prepared for future shifts in the media landscape,” says Starr. “We produce for the format, not the platform,” Starr says. “No one is under the impression that YouTube is going to be the platform forever, but the formats — short-form vertical video, for instance, that works on multiple platforms — have a lot more staying power.”
Of course, YouTube strategy goes much deeper than just uploading a full GBH News segment, a FRONTLINE film, or an ANTIQUES ROADSHOW episode to the platform. Much of the work of the digital content team led by Starr involves organization-wide education on how to produce content specifically for YouTube, such as the NOVA video below published in time for the Winter Olympics. From optimizing video titles and thumbnails to establishing a hook, and layering the narrative structure in a way that keeps the viewer’s attention despite the temptation to scroll down the page, Starr and Joanie Tobin, who leads the digital video arm of the team, are fluent in the tricks of the trade. “Having a team that understands how people are watching — which changes consistently — and how YouTube promotes your videos has been a massive help,” Starr says.
Crucially, expansion into digital platforms like YouTube and TikTok enables GBH and its units to appeal to new audiences and bridge generational gaps. For instance, the viewer demographics on YouTube for Boston Public Radio, GBH News Rooted, and The Curiosity Desk vary substantially, but all three shows have increased their audiences considerably by populating the GBH News YouTube channel with livestreams, original videos, and Shorts.
Since 2013, GBH Music has built a YouTube library that spans nearly every genre. Seeing that translate into 3.6 million views and 600,000 hours of watch time this past year alone reinforces our commitment to making world-class music accessible to everyone.Sam Brewer, General Manager of GBH Music
Video podcasts are another burgeoning part of GBH’s YouTube strategy. An innovator in the space, GBH has been recognized by YouTube for its work adapting narrative podcasts into video podcasts. Moreover, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW “DETOURS” was nominated for a 2026 Ambie Award for Best Use of Video in a Podcast, NOVA’s “Particles of Thought” has experienced a precipitous rise since its 2025 launch, and the latest season of “The Big Dig” podcast, “Catching the Codfather,” is releasing to wide acclaim with video episodes to accompany the audio.
“By including a video element, you’re exposing your podcast to such a wider range of people,” starts Starr. “It is so worth the investment. It’s a purely additive experience; even if the audience isn’t watching every frame of the video, it’s reaching so many more people by virtue of it being on YouTube and having visuals to pair with it.”
For the past two years, the Digital Content team has experimented with the different kinds of visuals that can accompany and enhance a podcast. A video podcast, Starr says, can vary from a simple video interview in a well-lit, beautiful studio — as you’ll find in “Particles of Thought” — to the highly produced narrative podcast season, like “Catching the Codfather,” which has archival footage and B-roll of New Bedford shot by the digital content team to match the audio for a 60 minute-long podcast. The latter is much heavier lift, and more expensive, Starr notes, but can be worth it all the same. “Now that we’ve done it successfully, our trick is to figure out how to make it repeatable.”
This work will no doubt be helped by GBH bringing the production of some of its video podcasts in-house and filming them at the foundation’s Studio B space on Guest Street. With Season Two of “Particles of Thought” airing in April-May of this year, in-house production represents an important next step in GBH’s business model.
Central to all of these efforts is the project of expanding GBH’s revenue streams to make the YouTube channels a contributing pillar of GBH’s independent, sustainable business model. Asked how YouTube might help drive revenue growth for GBH, Starr says: “extension of sponsorships to direct sales and other YouTube monetization tools, as well as fundraising directly on the platform.”
The GBH News YouTube channel both widens our audience and brings us closer to them. From the lively chat in the daily Boston Public Radio livestream to the tens of thousands of comments shared in response to our award-winning video stories, our YouTube audience is tremendously engaged with our content, offering feedback and ideas for future reporting.Stephanie Leydon, Senior Editor and Executive Producer, Digital and Multimedia, GBH News
Ultimately, the goal isn’t that YouTube replaces GBH’s existing broadcast and streaming platforms; those are not going anywhere. Rather, the aim for Starr, her team, and all of GBH’s local and national units, is to leverage YouTube’s remarkable reach to advance GBH’s mission of delivering impactful storytelling, revelatory journalism, free educational content, and powerful music, arts, and culture programs to viewers where they are.
“By 2030, I hope our YouTube channels will be taken as seriously as our broadcast channels in terms of programming,” says Starr. “And that they will be sustainable — that we’ll have a solid business model to fund the programming we produce specifically for the platform.”
More important than accessing new revenue streams is the unique connection to one’s audience that YouTube can provide. Not only does the platform allow channels and creators to understand what their viewers are responding to, but it can facilitate dialogue, connection, and communication on a much more dynamic level than traditional broadcast media.
“When I watch YouTube, I love to get to know the people behind the shows and channels I watch — people who are doing cool and creative things I would never see on television,” says Starr. “The tone, closeness, and authenticity are unique; you feel like you’re part of their community in a way that’s so distinct from watching a show on television.”
“Going forward,” she adds, “I’d love for us to foster that relationship with our audience, because it’s so quintessentially public media. It’s a natural progression for us in the way we’ve always thought about our relationship to the community.”
Explore your favorite GBH local and national programs on YouTube:
GBH
GBH News
GBH Music
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW
FRONTLINE
MASTERPIECE
NOVA
GBH Education
GBH Forum Network
GBH in the Community
Stories from the Stage
Arthur
Design Squad
High School Quiz Show
Molly of Denali
Work It Out Wombats!
