TheWashington Post‘s former face of Tiktok has said his decision to launch his own company was because video was not “getting the support it needed to thrive” at the title.
Dave Jorgenson was senior video producer at the Post between 2017 and 2025, and was responsible for launching the paper’sTiktokchannel in 2019. He left the title in July 2025, announcing the launch ofLocal News International(LNI) in the same month.
LNI was also founded by ex-Post deputy director for video Lauren Saks and director of video Micah Gelman, who left at the same time as Jorgeson.
Jorgenson told Press Gazette LNI is “basically trying to get all those followers” he amassed at the Post, and this has been “very effective quite quickly”.
“Our traffic was going up really high and, unfortunately for the Post, their social traffic was getting lower – which I think was a good sign that we found that audience, and we’re building even more people that hadn’t followed us elsewhere.”
“Now we’re excited to start doing long-form content in addition to what we’re doing with short-form,” he said, adding that LNI is also aiming to be profitable in the next year.
LNI was “partially” created “because it was very clear that video was not getting the support or anything that it needed to thrive” at The Post – “and I think that’s clearly the case now,” he said.
In a memo to the Post staff last week, executive editor Matt Murray said: “Some areas, such as video, haven’t kept up with changes in how consumers get news and information”.
It is not known how many video staff were included in the cuts.
Jorgenson said: “It’s really hard to watch from the outside and the only kind of solace I’ve taken is all these people, especially [in] video… they’re definitely gonna land somewhere.”
Source: Press Gazette
