 | |
| Founded | September 2012; 12 years ago (2012-09) |
|---|---|
| Founders | Kenneth Lerer Eric Hippeau Brian Bedol Fred Harman |
| Headquarters | New York City,New York, U.S. |
Key people | Sharon Mussalli (CEO) |
| Website | NowMedia Network |
NowThis Media is an Americanprogressive[1][2]social media-focused media organization founded in 2012.[3][4][5] The company specializes in creating short-form videos.[6] Their target audience areGen Z andMillennials.[7]
NowThis was founded byHuffPost co-founder and former chairmanKenneth Lerer and formerHuffington Post CEOEric Hippeau in September 2012.[8] NowThis originally focused exclusively on social-media platforms, such asFacebook, having announced in 2015 that it would not have ahomepage. By 2018, it had changed this position.[9]
On December 8, 2015, NowThis raised $16.2m inSeries D funding. By this time, the company said that 68% of its audience weremillennials between the ages of 18 and 34. It was announced that this funding would be used to launch more focused channels.[10] Between 2012 and 2014, theeditor-in-chief wasEdward O'Keefe, who previously was the executive producer atABC News Digital. As of 2013, NowThis produced about 50 segments per day and received about 15–20 million views per month.[11]
In 2016, NowThis joined withThe Dodo,Thrillist, andSeeker to formGroup Nine Media, which was acquired byVox Media in February 2022.[12][13]
In June 2020, numerous accusations of sexual misconduct were levied at NowThis associate producer Jackson Davis afterAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez quote-tweeted a graphic he created.[14][15] NowThis suspended Davis. Following an external investigation, he was removed from the company.[16]
In April 2023, it was announced that NowThis would be spun off as a separate company from Vox Media.[17] In April 2023 NowThis was purchased by the non profit Accelerate Change[17] and in December of the same year announced that Sharon Mussalli was appointed as their first female CEO.[18] In March of 2024 Adweek announced the creation of NowMedia Networks, an identity driven media network reaching 190 million people that is the combination of publishers NowThis, PushBlack, Pulso, ParentsTogether, Feminist, and PlusMas.[19]
In February 2024, it was announced thatNowThis had laid off roughly 50% of its workforce.[20] The organization said that the staff layoffs were part of a “broader initiative to realign our resources and structure to ensure a long-term sustainable business in the evolving media landscape.”[21]
In October 2024, NowThis announced their inaugural Advisory Board.[22][23] The Advisory Board is made up of business leaders with unique understanding of the GenZ audience.
In November 2024,NowThis underwent a second round of layoffs, which predominantly affected unionized employees. These layoffs were reported by current and former employees of the organization, though theWriters Guild of America, East (WGAE), which represents the unionized staff, has not released an official statement on the matter.[24][25]
NowThis's content is targeted at left-leaningMillennials[7] An analysis fromBuzzFeed News found that NowThis was the most popular left-leaning site on Facebook between 2015 and 2017; along withOccupy Democrats, it accounted for half of the 50 top posts on Facebook.[26] According to theReuters Institute for the Study of Journalism NowThis' videos are primarilyemotion-driven in order to generate views and shares[27] and the group has been accused of making partisan content.[28][29]
In 2015, NowThis published aconspiracy theory that claimedCNN deleted a poll of Facebook users asserting that most participants thought thatBernie Sanders beatHillary Clinton in the first2016 Democratic Party presidential debate. NowThis created a video titled "It looks like CNN is trying to help Hillary look good, even if that means deleting polls."PolitiFact found that CNN did not delete the poll in question and in fact displayed the results of the poll during its broadcast and also published the poll on its Facebook page. The claim was rated as "Pants on Fire" false by PolitiFact.[30]
AfterDonald Trump was elected president in 2016, NowThis posted a clip of CNN commentatorVan Jones giving a speech about the election results on their social media. The posted clip generated over 23 million views on Facebook, and NowThis included its own logo in the upper corner, not CNN's. CNN accused NowThis of violating theirintellectual property rights and stated that video "was used without attribution or permission", and they were "exploring [their] options with regards to NowThis, Facebook and Twitter." NowThis removed the clip from their Facebook, while it remained on their Twitter.[31]
During the2016 United States presidential election, NowThis repeatedly claimed that Trump lied aboutBill Clinton signing theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) using videos posted on Facebook and YouTube. PolitiFact found that Bill Clinton signed the final version of the NAFTA as Trump had stated, and rated the claim false.[32]
In September 2019, NowThis tweeted out that "Republicans in North Carolina used a 9/11 memorial to trick Democrats into missing a key vote", which was later shared by SenatorElizabeth Warren. PolitiFact rated the claim false and discovered only one Democrat was at a 9/11 memorial during the time North Carolina Republicans held a controversial budget vote. NowThis did not correct their claim.[33]
In January 2020, NowThis removed a segment of a video they posted where aGeorge Washington University student falsely claimed that Holocaust diaristAnne Frank did not die in a concentration camp. Frank died in theBergen-Belsen concentration camp in either February or March 1945.[34][35]
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