Disney-owned ABC News has formed a joint venture with video news site ATTN: to produce videos for social media in an effort to capture a younger demographic. The partnership will use ABC’s resources to create short form news content for social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter.
The much sought after millennial age range of viewers no longer use television as a primary source of their news. Streaming sites like YouTube and Hulu, along with social media, have replaced traditional formats for receiving information. The 18 to 34-year-old demographic only made up 8% of national broadcast news viewers in 2016. The average age of ABC News’s digital content viewers are between 30 and 40-years-old; ATTN: brings in a younger audience with viewers in their mid-to-late 20s.
ABC has the ability to provide not only production resources but bigger-name guests and interviews, while ATTN: has the experience and capability of editing that content in a form that will appeal more to younger audiences. As part of the partnership, ATTN: co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Matthew Segal will be added as a contributor on ABC News.
ATTN:’s current content utilizes Facebook’s ad program, which allows advertisements placed mid-video; they could possibly use this to monetize their ABC content. ABC has said themselves they are considering the ad program, but gave no details on their plans as of yet.
ABC News is not the only network news provider trying to court millennials. Earlier this month, NBC News(owned by Comcast Corp.) began a news show on Snapchat that airs twice-per-day. They also created “NBC Left Field” to produce content for Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube in the form of short documentaries and videos.
Source: Reuters
