NBC Universal News Group acquires minority stake in NowThis News
13 Jan 2014
The NBCUniversal News Group has acquired a minority stake in NowThis News, a short-form video news network aimed at mobile and social users.
NowThis News and NBCU News Group will collaborate on projects based at the New York studio of NowThis News.
According to Patricia Fili-Krushel, chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group, it was known that news consumption among younger audiences continued to grow but in order to reach that audience, what was needed was to continue to create video for the platforms they used most.
She added, NowThis News did exactly that – delivering relevant news stories for the mobile and social platforms that resonated with this audience.
The venture was co-founded by Ken Lerer of Lerer Ventures in the summer of 2012 as Planet Daily, but was relaunched a few months later as NowThis News with executives from ABC News, CNN and Washington Post among the ranks of its leadership.
Additionally, NBCU news, has named Sean Mills, president and Ashish Patel, as VP of Social Media. Mills had been president at The Onion, while Patel was at VICE where he was head of social media.
While NowThis News has a traditional website for delivery the company relies on apps for iOS and Android devices, as also the major social media platforms. It offers primary content in the form of short-form news clips.
Other high-profile investors in NowThis News are Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman and noted venture capitalist Ken Lerer, who was instrumental in the launch of The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed.
With its minority stakeholder status established, NBCU's News Group planned to co-produce video content with NowThis News, of which some would find its way to top NBC News outlets, like MSNBC and Today.