Television newscasts on the network and local levels that engage viewers with accurate, balanced, and reliable reporting deserve far more respect and investment from advertisers. That's the mantra elaborated and emphasized by Nexstar Media Group through the opening event of the company's new "Next" symposium initiative.
Journalists, brand, and ad agency representatives gathered at the Paley Center for Media's New York quarters to see Nexstar's forum, dealing with "The Power of News: Growing Brands & Serving Communities." In recent years, Nexstar has pushed its commitment to news programming in several ways, from having all of the company's 200 broadcast TV stations carry up to 14 hours of newscasts per day -- involving more than 5,000 journalists across the country -- to converting general entertainment cable channel WGN America to NewsNation, scheduled to achieve all-news status full-time next year. Nexstar also operates Washington, D.C.-based online news source The Hill, whose programming service is distributed nationwide through smart TV sets, devices, and multichannel bundles.
"When brands invest in news, they reach an engaged and enlightened audience. The importance of credible journalism is more important than ever," insisted Nexstar Chief Revenue Officer Michael Strober (pictured below) in his opening remarks to symposium attendees. With this and "Next" events to come, Strober added, the aim is to generate thought leadership and "transformative dialogue to impact media and advertising."
NewsNation Senior Political Contributor George Will (pictured below), one of the country's best-known TV and print observers of the D.C. scene, urged advertisers who used to spend considerable dollars on newscasts to reverse course and invest again. "My simple message is don't forsake journalism. Don't give up on the news," he said. "The journalism market is healthy outside New York and D.C. There's a desire (by viewers) for facts, for solid information. Supporting journalism is a civic good."
In a roundtable panel following Will's remarks, NewsNation anchorperson Chris Cuomo and Senior Vice President and Managing Editor Cherie Grzech acknowledged that a large chunk of all-news channel programming dwells in bias and appeals to a grievance culture in society. However, growing viewership at NewsNation as other all-news networks face a viewership downturn suggests that the tide is turning in a direction toward more quality content. Bob Cusack, The Hill's Editor-In-Chief, and Rod Carter, anchorperson at Nexstar-owned station WNCN-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, also participated on the panel.
"There's an opportunity for us," noted Cuomo. "Media should be constructive. There's tremendous space to align brands with an advocate for people's interests. This is the only (network) set up to reflect the country." In a few weeks, NewsNation will launch a series of reports taking the pulse of residents in 35 counties across the U.S., to learn how the situations they deal with are or are not being addressed by the 2024 Presidential campaign candidates.
"We're reaching out to the missing center, and that's a positive thing," added Grzech. "We want to provide understanding on the national level so people can take it in and make their own decisions."
Ad Fontes Media, a watchdog organization that monitors and rates news media outlets based on content quality, bias, and investigative fact-finding, collaborated with Nexstar on producing the event. Ad Fontes is putting together a coalition of organizations that will challenge advertisers to put at least $1 billion back into newscast messages and segment sponsorships, together with other news media commitments, next year.
The time has arrived for brands to strike up new partnerships with local and national news sources that consistently showcase impactful fact-centric reporting, maintained Ad Fontes Media Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Otero. "No one gets upset when people advertise in high-quality, highly reliable or minimally biased content," she continued. "There's a huge appetite for this…and a lot of (programming) is worthy of broad support."
"There's a civic responsibility to be in news," noted Lou Paskalis, Chief Strategy Officer at Ad Fontes Media. "We have to tell advertisers about the relentless value in news…and we have to let the CEOs know what's going on and advocate and educate them. Let's invest in projects that value trust."
Nexstar expects to hold several "Next" events in 2024, with sports and the role of artificial intelligence in newsgathering two topics under consideration.
Photos courtesy of Nexstar.
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