digital news

Pauline Chiou’s Gen Z college journalism students are teaching her a lot about their media consumption priorities. It turns out Lululemon and Toca Boca can teach news outlets much about how to reach this elusive demo.

Of the four television products that comprise Fox News Media — which includes the Fox Business Network, the Fox News Channel and the streaming service Fox Nation — Fox Weather is the only service that offers free access to every element of its product (viewers don’t have to pay to stream the Fox Weather channel, and its website and smartphone apps are free to download and use).

Kyle Rogers is taking over from Shawn Wheat as the station group moves the headquarters of its 24/7 streaming news network from Omaha, Neb., to Washington.

Jen Brown is named SVP of programming and content strategy, BBC Studios Global Digital News & Streaming, while Saeed Ahmed is appointed head of digital journalism, U.S.

The brainchild of Ben Smith, former media reporter for The New York Times, and Justin Smith, ex-CEO of Bloomberg Media, Semafor has raised $25 million and hired more than 50 staff members since both men quit their previous jobs in January. They are not related. Semafor’s website, with a distinctive yellow-tinged backdrop that looks like a newspaper left out in the sun, went live shortly after 6 a.m. ET today, with eight newsletters in place as well as an events business.

Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist for ABC News, provided her millions of social media followers with behind-the-scenes updates before and during Hurricane Ian as well as live reports on ABC World News Tonight and Good Morning America.

Numerous news start-ups have raced to fill a void of statehouse coverage. Pluribus News is planning to report on the policy trends making their way from one legislature to the next.

The Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has rescheduled its next hearing for 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 13 and look for news nets to provide extensive coverage if NBC is any indication. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt will anchor the broadcast coverage, which will also stream on NBC News Now. Coverage will actually begin on the streaming platform at 12:30, in advance of the hearing, again with Holt.

Sara Shahriari, director of leadership and talent development at the Institute for Nonprofit News, talks about the importance of succession planning for digital news organizations among other issues.

People who want to watch ABC News’ Nightline no longer have to stay up past 12:30 in the morning. The venerable late-night news show, perhaps the last weekday word in the daily broadcast news cycle, is taking a step into streaming video, with a weekly newsmagazine counterpart that aims to burnish new storytelling tactics for subscribers to Hulu. The first half-hour broadcast of Impact x Nightline debuts Thursday, Oct. 6.

Subrata De, who oversees all news coverage at Vice Media, is staying with the youth-focused company. De, who is EVP, news and global head of programming and development at Vice, has extended her contract for another two years. It comes after Vice won 10 Emmys at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards Wednesday night.

The launch of John Dickerson’s CBS News Prime Time in September means that all three broadcast network news divisions have unique streaming newscasts at night, a nod to the future and bid to reach young people who aren’t watching television at dinnertime. Above (l-r): Tom Llamas, host of Top Story with Tom Llamas, Linsey Davis on the set of ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis, and John Dickerson, host of CBS News Prime Time with John Dickerson.

Sinclair’s local news OTT streaming service NewsON has signed a licensing deal with CBS News and Stations and its owned-and-operated stations. As part of the deal, NewsON will add 13 CBS local stations to its platform. The new stations include the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco markets. NewsON will offer live newscasts, CBS News Local FAST channels, and short form story clips from each of the stations, including the upcoming Detroit channel when it launches.

The revamped ABC News app is built on Disney’s proprietary technology, product and design platforms — improving speed and scalability, and offering increased flexibility for storytelling. 

With advertising down and newsprint and delivery costs rising, reduced traffic puts pressure on an already ailing industry.

All three major American networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — broke into regularly scheduled programming to announce the news. Many Fox affiliates picked up the live coverage from Fox News. American newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and USA Today had blaring headlines on their websites — the kind of headlines reserved only for the biggest news stories. CNN used its “Breaking News” banner — something it has done much less of since Chris Licht took over as the network’s boss.

The company is in talks to develop a content partnership with MBC, a Saudi Arabian media giant partly owned by the government.

Beginning Sept. 9 and continuing for nine weeks, Election 22: What Matters will focus on a different topic relevant to the elections, such as the economy, inflation, reproductive rights, health care and the state of democracy at large. Election 22: What Matters will air at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on Newsy, the 24/7 free over-the-air broadcast news network owned by E.W. Scripps Co.

WRAL News+ can be watched and heard by listening locally on the radio in Raleigh, Durham and across North Carolina’s Research Triangle, watching online at WRAL.com, streaming within the WRAL app on a smart TV, and with the WRAL mobile app. Among the new effort’s staff (l-r): Taiyana Hill, Rosalia Fodera, contributor; Jeremy Spearman, executive producer; Meghan Glova, contributor; and Khadejah Durant.

NBC Bay Area News, NBC Boston News, NBC San Diego News are now accessible through the Roku Channel. LX News, a TV and streaming network from NBCU Local for millennials and Gen Z-ers, makes its Roku Channel debut.

While it’s not yet feasible to combine rundown-based computer systems favored by newsrooms with digital teams’ storycentric content management systems, progress is being made in communication between the systems and with third-party software, bringing the two groups closer together. Above: Vizrt’s Story is a Web-based system for script creation and editing that tightly integrates with the Viz One media asset management system and Viz Pilot template-based graphics system.

Beverly Chase has been promoted to vice president of current programming and development for Vice News and Vice World News. Chase was previously the executive producer of long form for Vice News. In her new role, she will continue to serve as as executive producer and showrunner of Vice on Showtime. She will also now oversee original programming, specials, and long form projects while expanding her role at Vice News Tonight.

Revenue from digital advertising fell slightly in the second quarter, but subscription revenue continued to rise sharply, the company said.