While vertical video has long been a staple of social media platforms, as of the beginning of 2026 it’s also becoming a new “hot thing” for web publishers. 

In the digital world dominated by social media platforms, vertical video has definitely become one of the most conventional formats to consume short-form content, e.g. via Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. The numbers really speak for themselves: as eMarketer reports, over 70% U.S. consumers tend to watch short-form video content daily, multiple times per day, and over 60% of them find such content more compelling than conventional articles, especially long-form editorial pieces. 

On LinkedIn, too, according to Reeder, short-form video currently drives twice as much user engagement as other formats and, more importantly, 97% of all video content on this platform is vertical. 

In addition, recent surveys show that a growing share of mobile users are eager to consume news content directly on TikTok, meaning that news publishers are currently missing opportunities to engage these segments via video. 

Taken together, all of this data proves one point: the implementation of vertical video on publishers’ web properties in 2026 could unlock powerful revenue streams, both through subscription growth and advertising partnerships. 

Driving Reader Subscriptions through Vertical Video

In the premium news segment, a growing number of publishers, like the New York Times, People, TIME, and others, have already begun adopting social-style vertical video modules, aiming to drive the average time spent and audience engagement with the news, and the initial results look very promising. 

According to the Nieman Lab, for instance, the Economist, which has enabled toggling between short-form vertical video content within its digital properties, has doubled its paid subscribers’ engagement with vertical video over the past 12 months. And this trend is only continuing to grow with time.  

As the experts admit, the reasoning is obvious: watching a short video summary of the article prior to reading its full version, or even instead of it, helps minimize the so-to-speak “missing news read guilt” among subscribers, while keeping them informed with the latest news, hence ensuring the sustainable loyalty to the news outlet, as a result. 

Unlocking New Advertising Opportunities with Vertical Video 

As the recent data unveils, vertical videos are being heavily used by marketers in their online advertising mix. Namely, according to HubSpot, for example, ~30% of marketers invested in short-form video on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube in 2025, and this trend is worth taking into consideration by publishers, wishing to expand their advertising revenue opportunities in 2026.

Namely, if a publisher has adopted short vertical video summaries for their articles within their digital properties, integrating instream ads in these video units can help ramp up advertising reach in a brand-safe and brand-suitable premium content environment, making their inventory exceptionally valuable for brands across the top-tier verticals.

In addition, for cases where a reader can toggle between vertical video content pieces, integrating Interstitial video ads with relevant CTAs can potentially drive higher engagement rates, if compared to conventional instream ad units. 

Namely, this strategy can be especially useful in the retail media environment, where online shoppers demonstrate their eagerness to watch short product overviews prior to making a purchasing decision. 

Meanwhile, in the outstream context, an effective strategy would be to implement vertical InBanner video ad placements into the publishers’ web properties. The trick is, according to International News Media Association’s (INMA) data, over 70% of display advertising budgets are likely to shift to video by 2028, potentially driving almost 146,000,000,000 USD in short-form video ad spend. This is where InBanner video ads (along with the more usual InPage video and other formats) can help, enabling publishers to integrate video into the vertical banner placements, natively embedded alongside editorial content on their websites. 

Tips on Vertical Video Ad Implementation

First and foremost, since the creation of short video content for every editorial piece usually requires extra operational resources, a potential approach is to use an AI-based video generation solution that can summarize articles into short-form video faster & smoother. 

In this respect, as the number of paid options on the market continues to grow, it’s important to take time and conduct thorough research to select a solution with a balanced value/price proposition.

Secondly, the implementation of vertical video ads on a publisher’s web properties inevitably requires proper technical infrastructure, i.e. a lightweight and highly customizable ad-enabled video player solution, compliant with integrating various Demand Tags and adjusting creative display to a specific ad placement. 

In view of this, working with a reliable video ad tech vendor like AdPlayer.Pro can significantly streamline the technical onboarding process and minimize page latency & ad errors.

And when it comes to customer experience with vertical video ads, the most effective approach is to continuously experiment with various placements, designs, CTAs and performance patterns to ensure the most comfortable ad viewing experience, while also maintaining strong engagement with editorial content. 

In a whole, although the adoption of vertical video will undoubtedly trigger extra financial investment from publishers, most analysts acknowledge that video ad revenue outcomes hold strong promise both in the short- and long-term perspectives.