NowThis killed the homepage. Can it build a habit?

In 2015, a news company removed the place where readers were supposed to find it. NowThis replaced its desktop homepage with links to social accounts. For a publisher, this was rather like a restaurant giving away its dining room and announcing that dinner would henceforth be served wherever you happened to be standing. There was a sound observation beneath the provocation: young people were already opening Facebook. Persuading them to open another website added a step.

The company's history is an unusually useful guide to the distance between finding an audience and keeping a business. It learned to capture attention inside somebody else's product. Today it is trying to make that attention repeatable. A passing clip can be a pleasant interruption. A show becomes something you recognize before you have decided to watch.

The opening seconds were the first casualty

Kenneth Lerer and Eric Hippeau founded NowThis in 2012. Both brought experience from the Huffington Post. The early proposition was short news for a phone, made by people with conventional newsroom credentials. But shrinking a television bulletin did not automatically produce something that belonged in a feed.

Columbia Journalism Review's 2015 account describes the changes. Early videos had hosts, ran a minute or two, and opened with conspicuous graphics. The company shortened them, removed the introductions and added text on screen, well suited to Facebook autoplay. The first casualty was the ceremony surrounding the news. A distracted viewer had little reason to sit through a publisher introducing itself.

NowThis also adapted stories to each platform, rather than simply shortening one master video. The distinction matters. A clip arriving between friends' updates has a different job from one selected deliberately on YouTube. The publisher's expertise lay in understanding those surroundings, then editing for them. Removing the homepage was the architectural expression of an editorial decision already under way.

A billion views still needs a buyer

Investors financed the experiment. Axel Springer led the December 2015 financing, which contemporary reporting put at $16.2 million. NBCUniversal had already invested and formed a production partnership. These were investments in a company and its expansion, not a disclosed price for inventing the short social-news clip. The format required people, production and distribution work, even when watching it cost the audience nothing.

Social distribution also removed familiar ways of charging. A publisher could attract viewers without owning the surrounding advertising space. Then the landlord could rearrange the building. When Facebook reduced the prominence of publisher content in 2018, NowThis expanded its distribution options. Its website returned that year, providing a home for longer videos and advertising. The abandoned dining room turned out to have its uses.

By May 2018, branded content was its largest revenue driver, according to management. The stated ambition was a balance among sponsored production and distribution, platform advertising, and production or licensing. That explains the two audiences a media company must please: people who watch, and businesses that pay. Enormous view counts do not settle the negotiation between them.

The cost of changing the programme

NowThis entered Group Nine in 2016 and came into Vox Media through the group's acquisition in 2022. In April 2023, an Accelerate Change investment made it independent again. Under the announced arrangement, Vox kept a minority stake and advertiser responsibilities. Ownership changed; dependence on social audiences remained.

The human bill deserves its own line. Workers had organized with the Writers Guild of America, East in 2020. Their first contract, ratified in 2022, included pay increases and five months of parental leave. In February 2024, NowThis made substantial layoffs; the union reported that 26 of its 50 represented workers lost their jobs. Management described the restructuring as an effort to make the business sustainable.

For 2024, CEO Sharon Mussalli subsequently reported $20 million in sales and $4.6 million in adjusted profit, figures published by Adweek. Those are management's reported results, and adjusted profit is a defined financial measure rather than a synonym for cash in the bank. The profitable-year headline and the staff cuts belong in the same account. A turnaround has beneficiaries and a payroll.

A show small enough for the group chat

The present entertainment proposition is more specific than “young people like video.” NowThis positions itself around Gen Z women, while NowThis Impact carries its news and social-impact work. Its original series include Are You Okay?, Judgy and Crosswalk Crush. A recognizable premise gives a viewer something to explain to a friend.

“Our biggest goal is to make it in the group chat.”

Michael Vito Valentino · September 2025

In a UTA interview, editor-in-chief Michael Vito Valentino described building complete story arcs into roughly 90 seconds. Recurring formats make the audience familiar with the rules; hosts and guests supply the variation. The advertiser can then join something people already enjoy. For a brand weighing NowThis against an independent creator or another social studio, the proposition is a produced series with an existing audience relationship.

Recognition has followed: Are You Okay? won both the Webby and People's Voice awards in its 2026 social interview category. Experimentation continues. Valentino told CORQ that roughly twenty failed attempts preceded three hits the previous year. Limited episode orders let the team test a premise before expanding it. Small screens still demand development budgets and editorial judgment.

The creator had the audience. NowThis brought the machinery.

January 2026's acquisition of Salary Transparent Street makes the new business tangible. Hannah Williams and her husband James Daniels had built a franchise around asking people about their jobs and pay. Williams said filming, sales, contracts and administration had overwhelmed a two-person operation. She stayed as host and creative lead. The purchase is a multi-year, performance-based deal, according to her announcement.

The lesson a reader can copy is operational: prove a repeatable premise, then identify the work that keeps its creator from creating. Watch the shows to study their openings, progression and endings; approach partnerships with an audience fit in mind. This approach depends on viewers caring enough to return and sponsors valuing that relationship. If every episode must buy fresh attention, or its sponsor overwhelms the premise, the economics become harder. NowThis's next test is whether familiarity can pay its way.