Newsy's Stephen Strong: Champion of the OTT News Space

Michael Smithamp160 How is Newsy dealing with growing competition in the OTT news space especially from bigger players like CBS NBC and Foxamp160 Stephen Strongamp160 We were one of the first news companies regardless of size to see the value of the OTT spaceamp160 We launched on Roku more than three and a half years ago before most of the other major news players were there amp160As a first mover we39ve built a solid audience that keeps coming backamp160 I think our nonpartisan messaging not taking a side left or right really sticking to news with the why and trying to educate inform and allow people to make their own decisions has definitely resonated with our audienceSmithamp160 Why do you think you39ve been so successful in getting on so many different distribution platformsStrongamp160 The acquisition of carriage contracts from RLTV in 2017 was certainly a catalyst and a strong relationship with our partners across the entire EW Scripps enterprise helped open doorsamp160 After that I think to some extent it has been a domino effectamp160 The first few cable distribution deals were challenging because we were unknownamp160 But with our linear channel we39re helping cable operators reach younger news consumers who have generally given up on watching cable news due to the inclusion of too much opinion and a presentation format that doesn39t make senseamp160 These viewers are hungry for balanced news and quality information and they39re underserved by the current cable news networksamp160 Our content resonatesamp160we have people spending a lot of time with us and they come back amp160That has made the last few deals a little bit easierSmithamp160 How do you balance and prioritize distribution between vMVPDs your own OTT apps and traditional cable TVStrongamp160 That39s a big challenge and opportunity amp160A few years ago it was all about quotHow do I bring people to my appquotamp160 Now our distribution strategy is rooted in getting content on destinations where people are already consuming contentamp160 We really value our linear partnerships as well as those with our OTT partnersamp160 Every viewer across all our outlets is importantamp160 We work hard to leverage crossplatform data to inform our marketing and content decisionsSmithamp160 What do you see for the future of adsupported OTT videoStrongamp160 While a lot of people subscribe to Netflix and other subscription services because there39s a limit to what they will spend overall I think free adsupported services will continue to be popularamp160 The growth of free adsupported services has been incredible and has certainly worked well for us amp160When you go into some of the SVOD apps you can spend 1520 minutes trying to find something to watchamp160 I call it discovery fatigueamp160 But most of our users jump into our experience to get into their news right awaySmithamp160 What is Newsy39s key selling point to distribution partnersStrongamp160 You have some traditional news brands that are on the left and some that are on the rightamp160 Given the current state of politics the gap between both sides is only widening leaving a space for advertisers who want to spend on news but don39t have a brandsafe environment in which to do soamp160 Newsy fills a growing lane down the middleamp160 Have you watched traditional cable news in primetimeamp160 You have 12 boxes on the screen 12 people screaming at each other after an hour of watching you leave with a headacheamp160 That39s not appealing for the viewer or the advertiseramp160 amp160 Watch Newsy for an hour and you know what you need to better understand your world all delivered in a factbased way without opinionsamp160 This message resonates well with distribution partnersSmithamp160 Do you see distribution opportunities beyond people watching OTT at home Strongamp160 Yesamp160 We39re excited about several deals we39ve done in the past six months in the outofhome spaceamp160 We did deals with Captivate which is on elevatoramp160screens and Reach TV which is in airportsamp160 We39re also exploring the audio spaceamp160 A lot of our content works well in audioamp160 We39ve done a lot of work with Amazon in creating longform experiences on Alexaamp160 These will all be big priorities for us over the next two yearsClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Newsy's Stephen Strong: Champion of the OTT News Space

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Michael Smith

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Newsy's Stephen Strong: Champion of the OTT News Space

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