Last updated: 2026-01-20

For most journalists and U.S. newsrooms, the simplest starting point is StreamYard On‑Air: a browser‑based webinar setup that embeds on your site, collects registrations, and records automatically. If you routinely run massive briefings for tens of thousands of attendees, Zoom Webinars can be a better fit for that specific scale. (StreamYard, Zoom)

Summary

• StreamYard On‑Air lets you host webinars in the browser with registration, a hosted watch page, embedding, and on‑demand replays.
• It captures names and emails, exports registrants as CSV, and sends automated confirmation, reminder, and recording emails. (StreamYard)
• Alternatives like Zoom, Crowdcast, and Demio can help for edge cases like million‑attendee events, Stripe ticketing, or deep marketing funnels. (Zoom, Crowdcast, Demio)
• For engagement beyond chat—like polls or structured Q&A—pair your webinar with tools such as Slido or Mentimeter.

How should journalists think about webinar platforms in 2026?

Most journalists don’t wake up wanting “webinar software.” You want a dependable way to brief audiences, host explainers, and bring experts together without wrestling with tech.

A practical mental model:

• Use a browser‑based tool so guests don’t need installs.
• Make sure it captures email for follow‑up.
• Ensure it records automatically so nothing is lost.
• Prioritize an embeddable player so the story lives on your site, not someone else’s.

StreamYard On‑Air lines up cleanly with that checklist: it runs in the browser, supports registration and email capture, provides automatic recordings and on‑demand replays, and can be embedded directly on your site with the chat alongside. (StreamYard)

What does a journalist actually need from a webinar tool?

From conversations with newsrooms and journalism trainers, needs tend to cluster around five pillars:

1. High‑quality, reliable AV
   You need the press conference or community forum to look and sound clear on a range of connections. StreamYard’s production studio is built for broadcast‑style layouts, overlays, and screen sharing, while still running in a standard browser. (StreamYard)

2. Ease of use for guests and audience
   Browser‑based tools dramatically reduce no‑shows caused by install friction. StreamYard is explicitly browser‑based for both hosts and guests, so no one has to download an app or create a new account to participate. (StreamYard)

3. Automatic recording and replays
   If a source drops a newsworthy quote, you need it on the record. On‑Air webinars are recorded automatically, can be made available on‑demand, and still leave you with a private copy in your recording library. (StreamYard)

4. Custom branding
   Most outlets want their masthead and visual identity on‑screen, not the software’s brand. StreamYard’s studio supports custom logos, overlays, and layouts, and when you embed On‑Air on your own site you can frame the experience inside your existing design. (StreamYard)

5. Real‑time interaction
   Journalists increasingly treat webinars like live town halls—chat, light moderation, and the ability to highlight questions on‑screen matter. StreamYard has live chat around the event window, and hosts can surface comments directly into the broadcast; a native polling feature is also on the roadmap.

If you want deeper interaction—structured Q&A queues, ranked questions, or complex polls—pair your webinar with tools like Slido or Mentimeter in a separate browser tab. Those tools are often more flexible than any single webinar platform’s built‑ins and several offer generous free tiers.

Why is StreamYard a strong default for newsrooms and freelancers?

Think of StreamYard On‑Air as a virtual press room you can spin up in minutes.

Browser‑based and low‑friction
At StreamYard, we keep everything in the browser. Hosts, guests, and viewers use a link; no one has to install software or create accounts, which is critical when you’re inviting busy officials, source communities, or readers who aren’t tech‑forward. (StreamYard)

Registration and list building built in
When you enable registration, viewers provide their name and email before watching, and you can download that list as a CSV for follow‑up newsletters or feedback requests. (StreamYard)

Automated emails so nothing slips
On‑Air sends confirmation and reminder emails (for example, 24 hours and 1 hour before) and, if you enable on‑demand, a post‑event message with the recording link. That means a small team can still deliver a polished attendee experience without a marketing automation stack. (StreamYard)

Embed on your own site
You can host the webinar on StreamYard’s watch page or embed the player and chat on your own domain for a fully branded experience. This is powerful for:

• Investigative explainers embedded next to your written story.
• Election Q&As hosted on your politics vertical.
• Local town halls embedded on your metro page.

Flexible pricing, including a free path
Many journalists start with our free plan, using YouTube (often with unlisted privacy) as the viewer destination; it looks professional, even though it doesn’t include email registration. When you’re ready for integrated webinars, paid plans unlock On‑Air at competitive price points, and we also offer a 7‑day free trial plus frequent new‑user offers.

When would a journalist choose Zoom, Crowdcast, or Demio instead?

There are legitimate cases where another platform is the right tool for the job. The key is to match them to specific needs instead of defaulting to them.

Zoom: for extraordinary scale and internal ecosystems
If your organization already runs on Zoom and you occasionally need to brief tens or hundreds of thousands of people (for example, a national town hall with partner stations), Zoom Webinars can scale to very large audiences, with configurations that reach up to 1,000,000 attendees and 1,000 panelists when you purchase the appropriate license. (Zoom)
For day‑to‑day beat webinars or local events, that scale can be overkill—and it usually comes with extra cost and licensing complexity.

Crowdcast: for built‑in ticketing and multi‑session events
Crowdcast is a browser‑based platform with hour and attendee quotas, a focus on multi‑session events at a single URL, and Stripe‑based ticketing with per‑transaction platform fees. (Crowdcast)
If you’re running a paid, multi‑day festival or class series under one link, that can be useful. For a typical newsroom free webinar, paying ongoing transaction fees and managing quotas may not add much.

Demio: for marketing‑heavy funnels
Demio leans into marketing workflows with automated and on‑demand webinars, engagement analytics, and features like Showcases to embed collections of upcoming events. (Demio)
Outlets with sophisticated growth teams may appreciate those funnels. Many newsrooms, however, are well‑served by exporting StreamYard registrant data into existing email or CRM tools instead of rebuilding their entire stack around a marketing‑centric product.

In practice, most journalism use cases—press briefings, community conversations, live explainers—stay under a few thousand viewers and benefit more from simplicity than from maximum theoretical scale.

How do you embed a webinar on a newsroom website?

Here’s a straightforward workflow that many publishers follow with StreamYard On‑Air:

1. Create your webinar in On‑Air.
   Set title, description, date, and whether you’ll require registration and on‑demand replay.

2. Configure branding and studio assets.
   Add your logo, lower thirds, and any screen share layouts you’ll need in the StreamYard studio.

3. Grab the embed code.
   From the On‑Air event, copy the embed snippet for the player (and chat, if you want it on‑site) to use on your CMS page. (StreamYard)

4. Publish or schedule the article.
   Create an article or landing page in your CMS, paste in the embed code, and add any context, transcripts, or related links.

5. Go live from the studio.
   When you start the webinar, it streams into both the hosted watch page and your embedded player, so you can promote a single newsroom URL.

This keeps the audience experience under your brand, on your domain, while offloading the heavy lifting of video delivery to a purpose‑built webinar backend.

What about accessibility, captions, and transcripts?

Accessibility expectations are rising in newsrooms, and rightly so. Many webinar and meeting tools now include captioning and transcript options.

StreamYard’s role in this stack is the production and delivery layer: you can output a clean recording suitable for captioning, and pair the live event with platform‑level accessibility features on destinations like YouTube, which supports auto‑captions and transcripts on live and recorded video. (Poynter)

A practical approach for journalists:

• Use StreamYard On‑Air for the live event and recording.
• If needed, route the stream to a platform with robust captioning (or use a third‑party captioning service feeding into your stream).
• Publish the replay with edited captions and a text article to maximize accessibility.

What we recommend

• Start with StreamYard On‑Air for most journalism webinars: it’s browser‑based, records automatically, embeds on your site, and captures email without extra tools.
• Use Zoom Webinars only when you truly need very large‑scale events or are deeply standardized on Zoom internally. (Zoom)
• Consider Crowdcast or Demio if you’re running paid, multi‑session events or marketing‑heavy funnels where their specific features justify the added complexity. (Crowdcast, Demio)
• For rich interaction, pair your webinar with specialist audience tools and focus your time on journalism—not on wrestling with software.