“My background is in the agency side, and I was keen to import some of those client-handling skills, bringing sales and marketing closer together,” Jones said. “That emphasis on relationships is proving dividends.”
The News Movement has also worked with Snap to train creators on the platform to produce journalistic content, and is paid through a revenue share based on reach. The program has grown from 10 to 50 creators.
In January, the publisher acquired the political news outlet The Recount in an all-equity deal. It plans to capitalize on the influx of political ad spend during the election year to break even by the end of 2024, said Beheshti.
Overall, the company is on pace to hit the revenue targets it set for itself in March. Next year it plans to grow its total business by 120%, said Beheshti.
“The socially native strategy poses a definite commercial challenge, though engaging with platforms as your primary distribution channel is really interesting from an editorial perspective,” said Niamh Burns, a research analyst at Enders Analysis. “It takes seriously the challenges of present-day digital trends, including the shift to short-form video that is occurring across platforms, and the difficulties of reaching and engaging younger audiences.”
Shifting its editorial strategy
In its second year in the U.S., the publisher plans to further its emphasis on social publishing, although with several tweaks.
The evergreen nature of lifestyle content can perform better on platforms like TikTok, where publishers can’t control when people encounter their posts, said Rosenberg. Advertisers also tend to prefer such content that avoids the brand safety concerns of news reporting.
The News Movement will also invest more resources in creating long-form videos, particularly for The Recount, which has 70,000 subscribers on YouTube. It currently has three new series slated for production, said Beheshti.
To further maximize its revenue potential, The Recount also plans to unveil a reader contributions program, as well as an Instagram subscription.
“The News Movement has built up a decent audience on TikTok from scratch and is producing really good content that fits that format better than lots of established publishers,” said Burns. “The question is: can this be more than an interesting editorial experiment?”
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