Newsy Slots New Live News Show ‘The Why’

Newsy, the Scripps-owned digital video news network, on Monday evening announced a live news program, The Why, and a slate of other new original programming and advertising offerings at its NewFront event in New York City.

Newsy VP of News Christina Hartman unveiled plans for The Why, a two-hour nightly news show set to launch this summer. The company said the program is a continuation of Newsy’s commitment to in-depth storytelling and marks the next step in the company’s expansion into longer-form TV programming.

“With The Why, we’re going beyond the surface of the day’s major news and connecting the events to deep context,” said Hartman. “The live show will be unlike anything you see on television today: a more insightful newscast that delivers on our audience’s desires for transparency, factual reporting and the why behind the news.”

Chance Seales, a veteran news and political reporter, will host The Why, joining a team of dedicated reporters and producers in creating the show from Newsy’s bureaus in Chicago, Washington and Columbia, Mo. (Watch the trailer for The Why here.)

The Why is the next iteration of Newsy’s linear product, Newsy Live, which is available on many of the top streaming video platforms, including Sling TV, as well as cable through a partnership with Cincinnati Bell. Eighty percent of Newsy Live’s viewers are 18-54, Scripps says, “a demographic difficult to capture via traditional TV news shows.”

Hartman also announced three new original series coming in summer 2017 (view trailer here):

• Sold in America is an investigative series that dives into America’s unseen human trafficking crisis. The series shows viewers how this form of modern-day slavery unfolds on American highways, in its cities and around some of its most famous events.

• Dirt Rich explores the front lines of Middle America’s changing climate. Defying stereotypes and stigmas, the series digs into the blue-collar boom in renewable energy, the new fight for clean water and more.

• Varsity Gamers takes a look at esports, or competitive video gaming, a fast-growing, half-billion-dollar industry. The series offers a window into the day-to-day lives of gamers under some of the country’s first college esports scholarships.

In addition to content announcements, Newsy presented details about its new Newsy Plus service, which offers advanced targeting for advertisers in the over-the-top video ecosystem. By bringing together data points including demographics, purchase intent, psychographics and device preferences, and layering in Newsy’s own viewership data, “Newsy Plus paints a full picture of how its users consume content and allows advertisers to target them in places they’re most engaged,” it says.

“Video advertising is ripe for innovation, and Newsy is leading the way by delivering the rich data our partners are seeking,” said Blake Sabatinelli, Newsy GM. “Newsy Plus offers marketers an unmatched view into how their content is performing and allows us to refine an experience over time to maximize the value of ad dollars in the over-the-top ecosystem.”