MS NOW Evolves Beyond Cable News With Its Own Everything App – Including Meditation

Image via MS NOW

MS NOW released its answer to the many headwinds facing legacy media and the cable news industry this week: a new direct-to-consumer membership platform.

MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler rolled out the new offering on Tuesday and boasted about how it fits into the network’s “pro-democracy” brand and will allow the company to reach “super fans” who either don’t have cable or don’t have the time to tune in as much as they would want.

Kutler noted that only 10% of MS NOW’s digital audience, which includes its website readers and YouTube viewers, also watch the cable news channel – an eye-popping stat that underscores the industry’s overall need to not only embrace alternative media, but also to monetize an ever-growing digital audience.

“MS NOW has always had an audience that wants to go deeper, hear more from the people doing the reporting, and connect with others who are equally engaged with the issues shaping their lives,” Kutler said, adding, “This Membership gives us the opportunity to build that relationship in new ways. We can create a standing place for those conversations to happen every day, while giving Members an experience that is more personal, participatory, and responsive to what they want from us.”

The launch is the latest signal of parent company Versant’s desire to diversify revenue streams and grow its digital platforms. MS NOW membership will include MS NOW’s 24/7 live television feed, exclusive new streaming series, daily live Q&As with top talent, a moderated member community, and guided meditations from Calm. The membership will be the first time MS NOW’s live feed has been available without a cable news subscription, something CNN+ did not offer with its failed attempt at a streaming network of original content.

The membership will include every link from MS NOW’s news website, but will also curate a daily briefing and trending topics for members in order to make the news less overwhelming and more digestible.

The membership platform’s programming is the result of over a year of research and some 18,000 survey responses, which MS NOW executives said led them to understand that American news consumers feel overwhelmed in the current media environment. For this reason, MS NOW partnered with Calm and brought on board founding contributor Dan Harris, a former ABC News journalist who left the business to pursue his interest in meditation.

“I also know how easy it is to become overwhelmed by the constant flow of information. Mindfulness isn’t about caring less or tuning out. It’s about building the awareness and resilience that allow us to stay connected to what matters without getting swept away by it. That’s why I’m so excited to see MS NOW investing in this space and creating tools that help people stay informed, stay grounded, and keep showing up for the conversations, communities, and democracy that matter most,” said Harris, who famously had a panic attack while on ABC’s Good Morning America in 2004, about his new role at the network.

MS NOW also announced it will launch five original news series, hosted by Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Claire McCaskill, Andrew Weissmann, and Ali Velshi, that will be available only for members. The shows will take on a less formal feel, which much of the cable news world (like Sean Hannity) has already embraced following the success of the podcasting format.

Velshi hyped the new platform as well on Tuesday, saying that the community it offers is the thing he believes news readers are missing most right now. “Since the demise of Twitter. I say that, I think you know what I mean, since the demise of it as a town square, there isn’t an obvious place where people who want to share that community can go. It’s just not obvious where they go. So now we’re building our own,” Velshi argued.

As cable television reaches fewer and fewer American households and alternative media continues to erode legacy media’s hold on the country, MS NOW is clearly looking to evolve. Like all cable news networks, MS NOW’s viewership skews older, but this latest venture appears crafted to make inroads with younger demographics who get their news on smaller screens. In today’s crowded media environment, the question will be, as it always is, can MS NOW convince its audience to pay for a subscription – even one that includes guided meditation.

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