One story, every format: how to repurpose content

Most organisations spend weeks producing a documentary, a report or a campaign, then publish it once in one place. Content repurposing is the discipline of planning that work so it reaches people wherever they are. The case for it is in the data. The Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026 found that social media and video networks are, for the first time, the most widely used way of accessing online news, used by 54% of respondents, ahead of news websites and apps at 51%.¹

Those audiences are spread across platforms. Facebook was used for news by 43%, YouTube by 34%, Instagram by 26% and TikTok by 20%.¹ In the report's Kenya analysis, the authors describe WhatsApp as particularly influential and TikTok and YouTube as central entry points to news, especially for younger people.² A film that lives only on your website will miss most of them.

Repurposing is not something you do after the edit is finished. It is a content strategy decision made at the start. Before filming or writing, agree the one central story and its key message, then list every format it should become and what each one needs. A web article needs quotes, a photo story needs strong portraits, a social clip needs a moment that works in a few seconds.

In our own practice, we build these needs into the shot list and interview plan. That way the photographer captures portraits during the same visit as the film crew, and the interviewer asks the short, clear questions that will later make good clips. Collecting everything on one trip is more respectful of contributors' time than returning again and again.

Length matters. The Reuters Institute found that on TikTok, 55% of news video watchers say they watch videos under two minutes, and that Instagram follows a similar pattern.³ YouTube is different: almost a quarter (23%) of its news video watchers say they watch videos longer than 20 minutes each week, and a further 35% watch videos of 6 to 20 minutes.³

So a 12-minute documentary should not simply be cut down. Keep the full film on YouTube and your website, then build separate short pieces for TikTok, Instagram and WhatsApp, each with its own opening, subtitles and ending. A good short clip is a complete idea, not a random 60 seconds from the middle of the film.

Here is how a single documentary about, for example, a community health programme might travel. Not every story needs every format; choose the ones your audience actually uses, and do fewer of them well. Give each format a clear owner and a publishing date, so the pieces appear as a planned sequence rather than all on one day.

• The full film for YouTube, your website and screenings
• A trailer and three to five short clips for social media
• A photo story or carousel built from portraits taken on location
• A web article or case study drawing on the interviews
• A quote card or short statistic graphic for each key finding
• A newsletter item and a LinkedIn post linking to the full story
• A slide or short video for presentations to partners
• A full transcript, published with the film

The most common mistake is to copy the same paragraph into every channel. People read differently on each. Nielsen Norman Group found that 79% of test users always scanned a new web page, and only 16% read word by word.⁴ For the web version of your story, that means meaningful subheadings, one idea per paragraph, bulleted lists and starting with the conclusion.⁴

The transcript is a useful starting point. The W3C describes a transcript as a text version of the speech and non-speech audio needed to understand the content, and notes that adding headings and links to a transcript helps search engine optimisation.⁵ An edited transcript gives your writer accurate quotes to work from, so the article, the captions and the social posts all say the same thing in the contributor's own words.

Repurposing raises an ethical question that is easy to overlook: did the person in the film agree to appear in all these places? Bond's ethical guidelines say contributors should understand how and where their images and stories will be communicated, through which channels and to whom, and that content could be seen by anyone, anywhere.⁶ Its example consent wording says that using a story again for a new purpose means going back to the contributor to re-consent.⁶

Short clips carry a particular risk. Taken out of the film, a sentence can mean something different. Bond states that it is not acceptable to change an image, photograph or film in a way that changes its context or meaning.⁶ Check every clip, quote card and caption against the full interview before it is published.

Every new format is another chance to include or exclude people. The W3C advises planning for accessibility from the very start of a project, to save time and money, and providing a transcript of the speech and non-speech audio.⁷ If captions, transcripts and alt text are prepared once, carefully, they can be reused across the film, the clips and the article.

Keep a simple asset log for each story: every file, its format, where it was published, the consent that covers it and when that consent ends. It makes repurposing faster next time, and it means anyone on the team can answer the question every communications manager eventually hears: are we allowed to use this?

• One central story and key message agreed before production
• Formats chosen for the platforms your audience actually uses
• Shot list and interview plan cover every format
• Short clips each work as a complete idea, with subtitles
• Text rewritten for each channel, not copied
• Consent covers every channel and format used
• Every clip and quote checked against the full interview
• Transcript, captions and alt text prepared once and reused