An App to Build Your Own Newscast

Knight News Challenge winner Watchup is a curatorial iPad app that allows users to build their own newscasts by self-selecting a series of news stories. Think along the lines of Pulse News but with video.

via Nieman Lab:

Pick 10 stories from 10 channels, then lean back with your morning coffee and watch as the stories roll past without user intervention. Channels cover topics like finance, technology, breaking news, business, and other news categories. The app comes preloaded with 10 channels, but users will be able to customize from a list of about 40 total.

How they hope to make money:

Farano says Watchup plans to generate revenue from pre-roll ads that will air before videos, and the plan is to give news organizations a cut. The trick will be to create an interface that’s appealing enough to users that they’ll abandon engrained habits and be willing to watch ads that they might otherwise be able to avoid. Farano argues it’s also an ideal solution for news organizations like The Wall Street Journal that find they can’t produce enough video to meet advertising demand.

Its funding will come as a venture capital investment rather than a grant.

FJP: Could be wonderful, could be tricky to sustain. Check out the other Knight news Challenge winners here.

Blog comments powered by Disqus