The NBCUniversal News Group will take a minority stake in NowThis News, a short-form video news network built specifically for mobile and social.
The two companies will co-produce original short-form news videos to be distributed across mobile and social platforms. Content will be produced by co-located NowThis News and NBCUniversal News Group teams based out of NowThis News’s New York City studio.
NowThis News is a news organisation that specialises in creating short-form video for audiences across social platforms that include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, YouTube and Snapchat. Videos are combined into NowThis News’s Android and Apple apps and a mobile website.
“We know that news consumption among younger audiences continues to grow, but in order to reach that audience, we need to continue to create video for the platforms they use most. NowThis News does exactly that — delivering relevant news stories for the mobile and social platforms that resonate with this audience,” said Patricia Fili-Krushel, chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group.
“We’re excited to incorporate this relationship into our overall strategy — to innovate inside and outside the company — positioning the News Group for future success.”
Kenneth Lerer, NowThis News’s co-founder and manager director of Lerer Ventures said, “By working together, the NBCUniversal News Group and NowThis News can learn from each other and build a great digital news experience that’s a win-win for the new news consumer who wants all video, all the time, built for social and mobile. This partnership allows us to showcase our shared vision of combining the world’s strongest news brands with NowThis News to super serve consumers.”
