Shorts-first vs long-first on a cold channel

Shorts-first vs long-first on a cold channel
Sources say YouTube's own partner managers have stopped pushing 'Shorts to grow, long-form to monetize' as one-size advice.
— Shorts-first floods you subscribers who never watch your long videos — your browse traffic to long-form can crater because the audience signal is mismatched
— Long-first builds a slower but 'sticky' viewer the system trusts, then Shorts amplify an existing watch profile instead of poisoning it
Confidence: medium-high. Several mid creators reported subs jumping while long-form views flatlined after a Shorts run.
For a channel like yours: pick the format your money comes from FIRST. Use the other to amplify, never to bootstrap a cold audience.