digital news

If there’s a sign of the times in TV these days, it’s the “+” sign. “Plus” generally denotes a new program service for on-demand streaming platforms. And local TV newsrooms are joining the trend.

Fox Corp. is hoping to replicate its success in the fields of general entertainment, news and sports with the launch of a new, ad-supported streaming service dedicated to weather coverage. Next month, the company’s Fox News Media division will formally debut Fox Weather, a free streaming weather network complemented by a robust website and mobile apps that the company says will offer its audience unparalleled coverage of weather-related events. The service is the latest ambitious push into the direct-to-consumer streaming space for Fox.

“America Strong” has been a long-running segment on ABC’s World News Tonight. Now it has become an editorial initiative across the news division. ABC News expects to take the segment, which showcases Americans who confront and persevere against obstacles, often in small towns and less covered spaces, to more of its programming across September, with profiles of people helping one another against challenges brought on by the pandemic.

The global news veteran is tapped to oversee the reimagining of the company’s newly combined network, digital and local stations’ news operations.

The NBC News anchor, who previously led breaking news coverage for streaming platforms in addition to other duties at ABC News, is preparing for the launch of a digital evening endeavor for NBC News, a project he vows will have a kinetic feel and range a little further afield than the linear products that still represent the best-known examples of the format.

BNC Go is tailored to suit the interests, active lifestyles and consumption patterns of Black millennial and Gen Z audiences. It will debut Sept. 13 on Amazon Fire TV, Pluto, Roku, Tubi, Samsung, Vizio and more with 18 hours of original content daily.

The growing broadcast group’s leader, Perry Sook, is spending $130 million on D.C.-based political news operation The Hill in his latest bid to expand into national news. I’m guessing that Sook is not done with his news-empire building. And what he needs (other than a dual revenue stream for The Hill) is a business site.

A month ago, Vice Media announced a plan to reduce the number of text articles it publishes on Vice.com, Refinery29 and other Vice-owned sites by 40% to 50% as the company shifts its emphasis to video. On Thursday, Vice Media laid off more than a dozen employees, many of them writers and text editors.

Politico, the 15-year-old digital media company covering politics and policy, is being sold to German publishing giant Axel Springer. The price was more than $1 billion, according to a source familiar with the terms. Axel Springer also will also acquire the remaining 50% share of its joint venture Politico Europe, and the tech news website Protocol from current owner Robert Albritton.

CNN says its subscription streaming service will launch in the first quarter of 2022 and, in addition to journalists, the network will hire hundreds of specialists in production, engineering, technology, marketing and analytics.

He will oversee all aspects of the Fox streaming news service, including content, product, marketing and distribution.

CBS News and Stations has launched CBSN Baltimore, the 12th of 13 local direct-to-consumer streaming news services within the group. WJZ Baltimore is the station behind CBSN Baltimore.

The media isn’t just parroting both sides. The problem is more complex.

The purchase of the national political platform “complements Nexstar’s leading digital platform,” the company said.

Mike Milhaven, Jill Billante and Lisa Crivelli will executive produce the new streaming news shows on NBC News Now. Milhaven is the lone hire from outside of the NBC News family, he joins from ABC News, where he was a producer on Good Morning America.

Robert Allbritton, the owner of Politico, is weighing a lucrative payday against maintaining full control over a widely read Washington news site.

The Times will make 18 of its newsletters available only to subscribers but will keep flagship email offerings such as The Morning free.

Jenn Suozzo, a veteran NBC News producer who has been working as the top producer at NBC Nightly News, will step away from the broadcast and is expected to be the latest high-profile TV-news executive to join CNN’s new CNN+ streaming service, according to a person familiar with the matter.

AT&T is in talks to sell WarnerMedia’s celebrity gossip site TMZ to Fox in yet another deal paring down the telco’s entertainment assets, one that comes as it prepares to spin off Warner and merge it with Discovery.

CNN chief Jeff Zucker announced Hunt’s hiring Tuesday. She is the first new hire for CNN to lead a show for its upcoming streaming offering CNN+.

Coronavirus misinformation has spiked online in recent weeks after a decline in the spring, misinformation experts say, as people who peddle in falsehoods have seized on the surge of cases from the Delta variant to spread new and recycled unsubstantiated narratives.

The Telemundo O&O’s 10-minute daily El Break De Telemundo El Paso is designed to offer a more relaxed format to help OTT audiences stay in the know while on the go.”

The longtime CNN executive will be responsible for the overall leadership, editorial identity and programming for the nascent national news organization.