NowThisNews, a US video-based news site that uses social-media to distribute its content in under 30 seconds has sold a minority stake to NBCUniversal News Group for an undisclosed amount.
For those of you not already familiar with NowThisNews, you may already be familiar with its founders: Huffington Post co-founder and former Chairman Kenneth Lerer, former Huffington Post Chief Executive Officer Eric Hippeau and Bedrocket founder Brian Bedol. Prior to the NBCUniversal transaction the start-up had raised just under $10m.
Backers include Softbank Capital, video news content company Bedrocket, Lerer Ventures and Oak Investment Partners. In May 2013, the company raised $4m in a series A round. The company previously raised $5 in a seed round under the name PlanetDaily Networks in April 2012.
From studios in New York and Washington DC, the digital news business produces over 50 daily video updates for Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Vine, YouTube, Android and Apple apps and the mobile web. What makes it unique is that its original news content for mobile devices and social platforms is packaged into 6, 15 and 30 second long video stories geared towards 18 to 34 year olds. This segment of the market has adopted mobile devices and social platforms as a portal for finding and sharing news and commentary.
In a recent televised interview on business news channel CNBC, Eric Hippeau, a managing director of Lerer Ventures, said that video is becoming the media of choice for people to receive information. Advertisers, according to Hippeau, are also very keen to learn more about how short-form video storytelling can be integrated on news sites on behalf of their clients. Hippeau confirmed that edtorial integrity will still always be paramount for any news site such as theirs.
But advertising has turned into a form of storytelling itself, entertaining in somes cases, which makes the short video social media outlet a natural progression for the advertising industry.
Many of the founding executives at NowThisNews have a senior digital content background from large news organisations, such as NBC, which made the management team attractive to the investors. The founding team and Lerer backers are also very interconnected to the video news technology segment. Kenneth Lerer, for example, is Chairman of Betaworks and Buzzfeed and Vice-Chairman of Bedrocket (also an investor in NowThisNews) a company that also produces video content.
Hippeau and other NowThisNews investors are also very connected to each other and the digital media sector. Hippeau, at the time of writing, is a Special Partner at Softbank Capital ( a fellow NowThisNews backer). Hippeau also sits on the board of The Huffington Post and Buddy Media.