TLDR News

Jack Kelly, then a 20-year-old computer science graduate, founded TLDR News in April 2017 with the aim of making news engaging to young audiences. He was motivated to create the channel while studying marketing at Loughborough University.^[3] Kelly observed multiple American outlets publishing infographic news on social media aimed towards youthful demographics. At that time, there existed almost no similar content within the United Kingdom.^[4] He has credited some of their initial success to being founded during the Brexit negotiations which drew attention to them, as well as lack of competition from traditional outlets online.^[5]

Rather than being a journalist, Kelly views himself as a content creator. In February 2023 he interviewed the American senator Mitch McConnell at the 59th Munich Security Conference. Under the auspices of the MSC YouTube Studio, the two discussed issues on geopolitical security and the Nord Stream pipelines sabotage.^[3] That same year, in a digital summit organised by the Financial Times, Kelly stated that all of their employees are between the ages of 20 and 28. He would also state that having young staff is a priority for him.^[6]

In March 2024 Kelly appeared in Press Gazette's podcast The Future of Media, Explained. There he discussed how the organisation generate income and fund their editorial staff.^[7] That June, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism observed their popularity with young consumers along with other online news channels such as Under the Desk News.^[8]

TLDR News are based in London. Until 2024, when the network moved to Clerkenwell, they were originally headquartered in South Bank (in a building near the Oxo Tower).^{[† 2]}

As of August 2025 their staff consist of twelve full-time employees.^[6] Their annual income of around £1 million^[9] largely derives from combinations of YouTube advertisement revenue, sponsorships established by their network Nebula^[10] and their magazine Too Long. In addition, about 1% of their revenue stems from payments for talks and panel appearances.^{[† 2][1][11]}

TLDR News target audience under the age of 35. Their members research press releases, official documents, transcripts, and other records when finding topics to produce as videos.^[5] Averaging ten minutes in duration, they distribute videos across their TLDR UK, TLDR Global and TLDR EU channels. The three respectively focus on diverse political topics around the United Kingdom, the world at-large and the European Union.^[11] Examples include How a US-Saudi Defence Pact Could End the War in Gaza, which has received 190,000 views and nearly a thousand comments,^[11] and The UK Election Results Explained, which received 1.1 million views within 48 hours following the 2024 United Kingdom general election.^[12]

In addition to videos, they publish longer-form podcasts on their channel TLDR Podcasts, including World Leader Leaderboard, Starmergeddon and The Editorial. They also print Too Long, a magazine launched in September 2023.^{[† 3]} They release approximately twenty videos across their channels every week, each filmed within two days. According to Kelly, no regulatory bodies (such as Ofcom) monitor the network. He has furthermore stated that owing to this, they are potentially liable to higher rates of error than mainstream outlets.^[4] Two of TLDR News's videos have been analysed by foreign news agencies.^[13][14]