How Newsy Leverages Scripps' Political Ad Powerhouse

Going into 2020 Scripps39 forwardlooking investment has paid off Newsy has found success in OTT and now has its own linear cable channel As part of the plan to continue and expand on that success and in preparation for the busy 2020 political year Newsy is partnering with the political ad team nested within Scripps based in the heart of Washington DCDuring the 2016 election Scripps39 nascent MarketPredict product was returning data that was more accurate as to voters39 inclinations than most public polls That was a bit of a lightbulb moment for Michael O39Brien vice president of distribution for Scripps and the company39s political ad team In January 2018 MarketPredict was officially unleashed onto the market The product uses live predictive modeling that pulls from data sets such as TV ratings polling and social mediaThis insightdelivering product has become a crucial arrow in the quiver of Scripps39 political ad team which consists of veteran political sales consultants with deep industry expertise quotOur DC operation along with our recent mergers sets us up perfectly not just for this election cycle but also for the next fourquot O39Brien saidThat is one of the draws that led Samantha Osborne Reynolds to join the Scripps team as senior director of national sales quotDigital and television buying has been siloed the last few years but that39s starting to changequot she said And she would know Reynolds brings a wealth of experience from political agencies including serving as the past chief digital officer for the Republican National CommitteeAgencies Reynolds added are now looking at their budgets in terms of video rather than just TV or digital Newsy39s vice president of sales Ken Ripley agrees quotThat shift provides immense opportunity for an operation like Newsyquot he said quotWe can be put into play on a local basis but is also a national platformquot he continued quotWe draw demand happily from the ondemand and linear marketplacequotThe Scripps political ad team has been a crucial asset in all this growth and changeAs in real estate location is key for political advertising not just the markets in which campaigns advertise but also where the buyers and sellers are located When you look at the 6 billion political ad pie or 10 billion depending on what you39re counting as part of the pie O39Brien said 80 percent of that revenue is being placed by 20 percent of the political agencies amp8212 quotand they all have their buyers in DCquot Though yes remote work and programmatic ad buying are on the rise and all politics are local physical proximity is still vital to the business of political adbuying quotThere39s no room for 39We39ll get to it later39quot Ripley said quotYou need to have people on the ground there39s an urgency for every one of these racesquotCampaigns will get updated poll numbers in the middle of the night and by early morning Reynolds39 team will already have changes to ad copy or strategy that needs to be turned around that day And because Newsy content lives on every platform where consumers looking for news it combines the reach of linear with the flexibility and accountability of digital quotThe real value of OTT is that the completion rate is something like 989 percentquot Reynolds said quottypically on the biggest screen in the room the TV screenquotAnd while tech behemoths such as Google and are putting the kibosh on political ads on their platforms amp8212 in part thanks to increased scrutiny by regulating bodies amp8212 the OTT world has seen no such backlash The targeting tools available to all OTT advertisers are still available to all political advertisers Combined with Scripps39 data and general local market knowledge these tools take on added valueIn the digital news world advertisers are increasingly concerned about brand safety which is why for O39Brien Reynolds and Ripley the most valuable aspect of Newsy is the fact that it is an unbiased news organizationquotHow most cable news networks achieve their ratings is well how they do itquot Ripley said quotWe follow the mandate of journalism amp8212 there39s plenty of room in the center to provide perspective as opposed to riling people upquotAnd though the 2020 election is shaping up to be quite fierce O39Brien Reynolds and Ripley are already looking well beyond November 3quotThe political cycle never endsquot O39Brien saidClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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How Newsy Leverages Scripps' Political Ad Powerhouse

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Oriana Schwindt

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