Commentary

TV News Channels Target Younger Viewers: What Is Left To Do, If Anything?

Should we abandon the idea of millennial-targeted news channels and websites?

Cheddar News -- which was seen as kind of a younger-skewing business news-focused alternative to the likes of CNBC -- has laid off some staffers under its new ownership.

Cheddar News, to an extent, may be trying to copy a little of what Vice Media has been attempting to do over the years -- looking to carve out a niche catering to younger news consumers.

Cheddar has been owned -- until recently by Altice USA -- since 2019. Recently Altice sold it to Archetype, a privately owned media company. Terms were not disclosed.

Vice Media, a broader news destination with its own cable TV network -- now called Vice TV -- attempted to do the same thing, offering news and investigative news programming as an alternative to the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN.

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But things have not gone so well. Vice Media, which was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017, is now likely to be valued at below $1 billion, according to industry analysis done early last year. In May 2023, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

We don't know the specifics concerning Cheddar. But we can only imagine that viewers and/or advertising growth also were not doing that well.

Generally speaking, TV news content skews to an older audience 55-plus/65-plus. What that means is that a potential core group of younger news viewers is modest at best. 

No surprise there. This audience profile also goes for national TV news networks and local TV news stations.

We all know social media estimated data is that roughly 60% all users get some news content via that platform. Figure that number is significantly higher for younger news consumers.

Cheddar was founded by Jon Steinberg, former president and COO at BuzzFeed. Last year, Steinberg departed. 

The news owners -- which own a slew of niche news and general interest publications including Sunset Magazine, Military Times, Army Times, Defense News, Federal Times and HistoryNet -- were no doubt ready even before the deal closed to make some drastic changes. 

The question is are there enough young business news viewers ready for something new.

1 comment about "TV News Channels Target Younger Viewers: What Is Left To Do, If Anything?".
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  1. Robert Rose from AIM Tell-A-Vision, January 6, 2024 at 9:20 p.m.

    Vice had a good product but hubris, greed, and mismanagement doomed them to failure. One could see it unfold like a slow motion train wreck. A few people got wealthy, most got laid off, and now a hollow version of it's former self tries to hobble along on it's brand name (a familiar story in the media biz). But the idea was 100% spot on and young viewers will watch IF you make it relavent to them (sorry local broadcast TV news stations but "on your side" and "news you can trust" and "eyewitness news" slogans from the 1970s won't cut it. Maybe someday, someone will build something for the long term instead of trying become a billionaire and cash out in two to three years leaving a flaming ball of **** in their wake. 

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About the Author

Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.