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NowThis
FoundedSeptember 2012; 12 years ago (2012-09)
FoundersKenneth Lerer
Eric Hippeau
Brian Bedol
Fred Harman
Headquarters
New York City, New York, U.S.
Key people
Sharon Mussalli (CEO)
WebsiteNowMedia Network

NowThis Media is an American progressive[1][2] social media-focused media organization founded in 2012.[3][4][5] The company is specialized in creating short-form videos.[6] Their target audience are Gen Z and Millennials.[7]

In April 2023 NowThis was purchased by the non profit Accelerate Change[8] and in December of the same year announced that Sharon Mussalli was appointed as their first female CEO[9].  In March of 2024 Adweek announced the creation of NowMedia Networks, an identity driven media network reaching 190 million people that is the combination of publishers NowThis, PushBlack, Pulso, ParentsTogether, Feminist, and PlusMas.[10] NowMedia Networks is overseen by Sharon Mussalli, with Sales leadership from Matthew Grandchamp and Brand and Creative Development leadership from Catherine Schuler.

NowThis’s commitment to relevancy with young audiences was further underscored in September 2024 when Deadline covered the announcement of their new Editor-in-Chief, Michael Vito Valentino, [11]whose expertise in social first content at MTV and Fallen Media resulted in 5B+ views. Sharon Mussalli explained this dedication to orientating content towards young audiences: “The reason why we’re keen on programming to young audiences is because the density of their social graphs with the network effects of those social spheres creates virality.”

This announcement also introduced a new strategy for the brand with development of social first vertical original series. Michael Vito Valentino explained, “We won’t just be working with creators, we’ll be developing them. We’ll do more than just keep up with our audience’s viewing habits, we’ll help shape them. It’s the same bite-sized content our followers are used to, with clarified and curated verticals. I’m beyond excited to share some of the incredible things we already have in the works.”

In October 2024 NowThis received wide coverage from outlets including Deadline,[12] Adage,[13] The Drum,[14] Business Wire,[15] Us Weekly[16] and What’s Trending[17] with the announcement of their inaugural Advisory Board. The Advisory Board is made up of tastemakers and business leaders with unique understanding of the GenZ audience.  The board will offer guidance as NowThis develops new content formats, ranging from pop culture to issue-oriented stories that align with Gen Z values, for their 74 million followers across platforms. Members include: Gen-ZiNE founder, Anushka Joshi, #paid editorial lead Emmy Liederman, TikTokstar and DJ Griffin Maxwell Brooks, founding member at Squared Circles and Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient Karan Jerath, and Executive at next Gen Practice at UTA Shaina Zafar.[12]

"The board helps us identify emerging trends and provides valuable input on how to approach storytelling," says Valentino. "They're also instrumental in ensuring that our content feels authentic and speaks to the issues Gen Z cares about most. It's about creating a feedback loop where we're not only responding to trends but anticipating them."[12]

History

[edit]

NowThis was founded by HuffPost co-founder and former chairman Kenneth Lerer and former Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau in September 2012.[18] NowThis originally focused exclusively on social-media platforms, such as Facebook, having announced in 2015 that it would not have a homepage. By 2018, it had changed this position.[19]

Behind the scenes of Joe Biden being interviewed on NowThis in 2016

On December 8, 2015, NowThis raised $16.2m in Series D funding. By this time, the company said that 68% of its audience were millennials between the ages of 18 and 34. It was announced that this funding would be used to launch more focused channels.[20] Between 2012 and 2014, the editor-in-chief was Edward O'Keefe, who previously was the executive producer at ABC News Digital. As of 2013, NowThis produced about 50 segments per day and received about 15–20 million views per month.[21]

In 2016, NowThis joined with The Dodo, Thrillist, and Seeker to form Group Nine Media, which was acquired by Vox Media in February 2022.[22][23]

In June 2020, numerous accusations of sexual misconduct were levied at NowThis associate producer Jackson Davis after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quote-tweeted a graphic he created.[24][25] NowThis suspended Davis. Following an external investigation, he was removed from the company.[26]

In April 2023, it was announced that NowThis would be spun off as a separate company from Vox Media.[8]

In February 2024, it was announced that NowThis had laid off roughly 50% of its workforce.[27] The organization said that the staff layoffs were part of a “broader initiative to realign our resources and structure to ensure a long-term sustainable business in the evolving media landscape.”[28]

In November 2024, NowThis underwent a second round of layoffs, which predominantly affected unionized employees. These layoffs were reported by current and former employees of the organization, though the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), which represents the unionized staff, has not released an official statement on the matter.[29][30]

Content

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NowThis's content is targeted at left-leaning Millennials[7] An analysis from BuzzFeed News found that NowThis was the most popular left-leaning site on Facebook between 2015 and 2017; along with Occupy Democrats, it accounted for half of the 50 top posts on Facebook.[31] According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism NowThis' videos are primarily emotion-driven in order to generate views and shares[32] and the group been accused of making partisan content.[33][34]

In 2015, NowThis published a conspiracy theory that claimed CNN deleted a poll of Facebook users asserting that most participants thought that Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton in the first 2016 Democratic Party presidential debate. NowThis created a video titled "It looks like CNN is trying to help Hillary look good, even if that means deleting polls." PolitiFact found that CNN did not delete the poll in question and in fact displayed the results of the poll during its broadcast and also published the poll on its Facebook page. The claim was rated as "Pants on Fire" false by PolitiFact.[35]

After Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, NowThis posted a clip of CNN commentator Van Jones giving a speech about the election results on their social media. The posted clip generated over 23 million views on Facebook, and NowThis included its own logo in the upper corner, not CNN's. CNN accused NowThis of violating their intellectual property rights and stated that video "was used without attribution or permission", and they were "exploring [their] options with regards to NowThis, Facebook and Twitter." NowThis removed the clip from their Facebook, while it remained on their Twitter.[36]

During the 2016 United States presidential election, NowThis repeatedly claimed that Trump lied about Bill Clinton signing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) using videos posted on Facebook and YouTube. PolitiFact found that Bill Clinton signed the final version of the NAFTA as Trump had stated, and rated the claim false.[37]

In September 2019, NowThis tweeted out that "Republicans in North Carolina used a 9/11 memorial to trick Democrats into missing a key vote", which was later shared by Senator Elizabeth Warren. PolitiFact rated the claim false and discovered only one Democrat was at a 9/11 memorial during the time North Carolina Republicans held a controversial budget vote. NowThis did not correct their claim.[38]

In January 2020, NowThis removed a segment of a video they posted where a George Washington University student falsely claimed that Holocaust diarist Anne Frank did not die in a concentration camp. Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in either February or March 1945.[39][40]

References

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  1. ^ Segers, Grace (August 25, 2018). "Beto O'Rourke says "nothing more American" than to stand up or take a knee for your rights". CBS News. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  2. ^ Valenzuela, Bryant (January 10, 2022). "The Weapon of the Century: Contemporary Politics Through the TikTok Algorithm". Harvard Political Review. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  3. ^ "Meet the company behind that viral Beto O'Rourke video". NBC News. November 6, 2018. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  4. ^ Ellis, Emma Grey. "Inside NowThis, The Upstart That's Owning Social News". WIRED. Retrieved November 4, 2016.
  5. ^ Josh Sternberg (November 9, 2012). "Can NowThis News Crack Mobile Video?". Digiday. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  6. ^ "State of the News Media" (PDF). Pew Research Center. March 26, 2014. pp. 16–17.
  7. ^ a b Soave, Robby (January 9, 2019). "Millennial News Site Thinks the CIA Being Run Entirely by Women Is a Progressive Victory". Reason.
  8. ^ a b Mullin, Benjamin (April 12, 2023). "Vox Media Spins Off NowThis, the Viral Politics Site, a Year After Buying It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
  9. ^ Stenberg, Mark (December 19, 2023). "NowThis Hires Its First CEO Since Being Spun Off by Vox Media". Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  10. ^ Stenberg, Mark (March 21, 2024). "NowThis Combines with the Accelerate Change Portfolio, Becomes NowMedia". Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  11. ^ Whittock, Jesse (September 5, 2024). "Social News Publisher NowThis Hires Michael Vito Valentino As Editor-In-Chief In Gen Z Programming Shift". Deadline. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  12. ^ a b c Whittock, Max Goldbart,Jesse (October 28, 2024). "'The Sex Lives Of College Girls' Star Joins Inaugural Board Of Gen Z News Outfit NowThis". Deadline. Retrieved November 12, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "Creator and influencer trends brand marketers need to know about right now".
  14. ^ "NowThis editor-in-chief on the company's Gen Z-focused rebrand: 'Creative is still king'". The Drum. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  15. ^ "NowThis Announces Advisory Board to Further Support Company's Pivot Towards Gen Z Audience".
  16. ^ "Hot Pics". Us Weekly. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  17. ^ "NowThis Launches Advisory Board with Griffin Maxwell Brooks, Alyah Chanelle Scott, and More with Focus on Diversity and Engagement". What's Trending. November 5, 2024. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  18. ^ Jessi Hempel (December 5, 2012). "Will news bites for digital natives work?". Tech Fortune. Archived from the original on April 5, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  19. ^ Weissman, Cale Guthrie (February 21, 2018). "Here's An Abridged Timeline Of Digital Media's Pivot To Video". Fast Company. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  20. ^ Ha, Anthony (December 8, 2015). "Video News Startup NowThis News Raises $16.2M Led By Axel Springer". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  21. ^ Chernova, Yuliya (October 8, 2013). "Short-Video Startup NowThis Says Journalism Isn't Dead". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  22. ^ "Vox Media Completes Acquisition of Group Nine". Vox Media. February 22, 2022.
  23. ^ Flynn, Kerry (December 13, 2021). "Vox Media is acquiring the conglomerate that owns NowThis and Thrillist". CNN. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  24. ^ Goforth, Claire (June 29, 2020). "AOC tweet leads to sexual misconduct allegations against NowThis producer". The Daily Dot. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  25. ^ Ellefson, Lindsey (June 29, 2020). "NowThis News Suspends Politics Producer After Accusations of Collegiate Sexual Misconduct Surface". TheWrap. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  26. ^ Ellefson, Lindsey (July 20, 2020). "NowThis News Politics Producer Out at After Investigation Into Accusations of Sexual Misconduct in CollegeTheWrap". TheWrap. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  27. ^ Helmore, Edward (February 15, 2024). "'Breathtaking' media layoffs continue with job cuts at NowThis and Intercept". The Guardian. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  28. ^ Korach, Natalie (February 15, 2024). "NowThis Lays Off 50% of Staff to 'Realign Our Resources and Structure'". The Wrap. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  29. ^ McKenna, Tom. "NowThis Layoffs Announced". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  30. ^ Evans, PJ. "Reaction to NowThis Layoffs". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  31. ^ Silverman, Craig; Lytvynenko, Jane; Vo, Lam Thuy; Singer-Vine, Jeremy (August 8, 2017). "Inside The Partisan Political Fight For Your Facebook News Feed". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
  32. ^ Kalogeropoulos, Antonis; Cherubini, Federica; Nic, Newman (June 29, 2016). The Future of Online News Video. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-907384-21-9. OCLC 987584014.
  33. ^ Wilkerson, Heloisa Sturm; Riedl, Martin J.; Whipple, Kelsey N. (April 14, 2021). "Affective Affordances: Exploring Facebook Reactions as Emotional Responses to Hyperpartisan Political News". Digital Journalism. 9 (8). Routledge: 1040–1061. doi:10.1080/21670811.2021.1899011. ISSN 2167-0811. S2CID 234853464.
  34. ^ Peacock, Cynthia; Hoewe, Jennifer; Panek, Elliot; Willis, G. Paul (March 4, 2021). "Hyperpartisan News Use: Relationships with Partisanship and Cognitive and Affective Involvement". Mass Communication and Society. 24 (2). Routledge: 210–232. doi:10.1080/15205436.2020.1844902. ISSN 1520-5436. S2CID 228933046.
  35. ^ Sanders, Katie. "No, Internet, CNN Did Not Delete Its Poll Showing Bernie Sanders Won the Democratic Debate." @Politifact, 19 Oct. 2015
  36. ^ Shields, Mike (November 9, 2016). "CNN Isn't Happy NowThis Posted Its Election Coverage Clip to Facebook and Twitter". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  37. ^ Emery, C. Eugene (August 11, 2016). "NowThis news site says Donald Trump wrong and Bill Clinton didn't sign NAFTA". PolitiFact.
  38. ^ Specht, Paul (September 17, 2019). "PolitiFact - NC Democrats not at 9/11 event during GOP budget vote". Politifact. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  39. ^ Oster, Marcy (January 22, 2020). "College student's video blasting Trump says Anne Frank did not die in Nazi camp". Times of Israel. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  40. ^ "After Outcry, NowThis Removes Video of Student Claiming Anne Frank 'Didn't Die in a Concentration Camp'". The Algemeiner. January 17, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
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