Future of TV Briefing: A Q&A with MSNBC’s Rashida Jones

If there’s one word to sum up what’s different about MSNBC’s nonlinear coverage strategy around this year’s U.S. presidential election compared to the 2020 cycle, it’s “volume.”

Having added TikTok to its platform video mix in the intervening years, the NBCUniversal-owned TV news network notched more than 2 billion video views across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok in the third quarter of 2024, according to an MSNBC spokesperson citing data from Comscore. That marked a 165% year-over-year increase and the first time MSNBC had crossed that viewership threshold.

That digital video viewership is likely only to surge some more over the next week-plus. As U.S. voters head to the polls and the presidential election is decided — eventually — MSNBC plans to churn out more coverage across its digital footprint, which also includes the mobile app it relaunched in March of this year.

“In the same way that we’re normally a television network that’s live 19 hours a day, we’ve got to keep the machine going on all of our platforms. And we’ve got a robust team in place to do that really starting Monday night, and it will continue likely through that entire week, nonstop,” MSNBC president Rashida Jones said in an interview ahead of that nonstop week.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When you were appointed president of MSNBC in 2021, you were heralded as a digital native charged with winning over younger viewers via streaming. Would you say you’ve succeeded in doing that?

It’s hard to point to a moment of success because it’s something that’s constantly evolving, right? And a lot of that is driven by where viewers and users are consuming. And so there’s no endpoint. It’s something we’ve been really focused on. It’s the reason we’ve been so focused on investing in those growth areas, because the audience is telling us they want to consume content in many more places in addition to linear television. And we’ve been really focused on how to deliver that.

Do you have any specific examples you would point to of what you all have done during your tenure toward the end of winning over younger viewers via streaming or digital more broadly?

Our focus has been diversifying how we share our content. So I would point to things like the mobile app, which launched this year and scaled downloads very quickly. I would point to scaling up our newsletters. I would point to our focus and investment in the YouTube strategy and knowing, as YouTube continues to grow as one of the most used search engines in the world, how can we have a presence there for people who are consuming content there. More and more users are going to platforms like TikTok; we’ve scaled 3 million followers this year alone on TikTok.

I guess one way to gauge success when it comes to winning over younger viewers would be how MSNBC’s nonlinear audience breaks down by age group. What are the stats there?

Like any other non-television platform, they’re definitely younger than our current cable audience, and they’re also more diversified.

Has there been any particular age group, or more broad audience segment, that’s been prioritized this year, from a growth perspective, especially on the nonlinear front?

We haven’t picked one particular sub-group other than younger audiences. The big focus there is we want to make sure we are providing content and analysis with a long road ahead. And so while both our focus has been on how do we continue to maintain the stronghold on our linear products, which tend to have viewers who have been watching for a longer period, [as well as] how do we introduce, in some cases reintroduce, our brand to younger audiences. But the thinking isn’t so much to create content specifically for those platforms or for those audiences. It’s more about bringing our content and our brand to platforms where younger people are consuming.

You mentioned two platforms: YouTube and TikTok. Let’s start with YouTube. MSNBC has been publishing on YouTube since 2011. Has the YouTube strategy evolved in any significant way in 2024?

One of our big learnings on YouTube is how much volume we’re seeing our audience consume. That’s been a big focus. We know that there’s interest. And so how do we continue to feed that appetite? And then it’s also the type and form and format of content. And so in some cases, short-form video works really well on certain stories.

Longer-form, the audience is very interested in live when it makes sense. And so we’ve tried to experiment a bit in providing not just a one-stop shop but different ways to bring that content to the audience. And I think for people who are already consuming our content, how do we make it an additive experience? And for people who are seeing that content for the first time, how do you really get the essence of what the entire brand brings to the table on YouTube?

Have there been any changes in terms of how the YouTube channel is being managed, in terms of the team, the size of the team, the makeup of the team or the different teams that may be involved?

It’s both. We’ve scaled up the team that’s really focused on YouTube and social platforms in general. That team has scaled up significantly this year. But we’ve also made it more integrated.

One of the things that has worked particularly well for us is this idea that any nonlinear platform — whether it’s YouTube or social or owned-and-operated — it’s not a separate entity. It’s not a separate part of our brand. It’s an extension of our brand, and so the teams are much more integrated with our core team that drives those platforms. There’s a lot more collaboration and conversation going on. Folks who spend their hours and days working on the television content, they’re the best positioned to help support our digital strategy as well. So there’s a lot more integration.

How has the MSNBC approach to TikTok or the role TikTok plays in the broader nonlinear strategy changed this year?

One of the biggest benefits that we’ve seen is building a team of native TikTok users. Our team in the social space, they are more native to these platforms than some of our other teams. They know the language. They know how to create content that’s authentic. One of the big learnings for many of us over the years is social platforms can suss out a lack of authenticity pretty quickly. And so focusing a team who knows the content, they know the platform, it’s their native way of communicating — that has been a big benefit for us.

A fair amount of the videos that MSNBC distributes on YouTube and TikTok are clips from the linear TV newscasts. You’ve said the strategy has been to go to where younger audiences are “rather than just focus on bringing more eyeballs back to linear cable.” But given that the revenue from these platforms can be a fraction of what MSNBC generates on cable, how do you make this work from a business perspective?

We found ways to make it additive. Some of the content may just be an excerpt of what you’re seeing on television. Some of it may be a mash-up or an edited version. The idea is we’re creating the content in a way that we’re not taking away from our program.

But at the same time, these are where audiences have already gone. There are many people who may see our clips and our content on social first before they see it on cable. I see it as a way to not only meet people where they are but also to find people who are interested in information, who are interested in the content, but just may not have cable. And if we can tackle both of those markets, that’s a win.

And you are doing original video also on these platforms, especially when it comes to TikTok. To what extent are you looking to do more original videos on the platforms? And do you have any plans to change up the original video strategy or see opportunities to do original franchises on the platforms?

We’ll continue to evolve it as the audience responds to it. One of the things that we’ve noted is content from our core offering, our core brand, does perform pretty well. And so I think you’ll continue to see a balance. You’ll continue to see us diversify and find ways when it makes sense to offer an original approach to a story, but also leverage the strength that we have of our core content on linear. So I don’t think it’s necessarily one or the other.

How has MSNBC’s coverage strategy for this year’s election, from a streaming and digital video perspective, differed compared to the 2022 cycle or the 2020 election cycle?

One area: volume. We’re just creating much more digitally native content, which we’ve seen a lot of success around. I would also point to the diversity of distribution. We’re now present and more active on more platforms than we were before. We found ways to get that content to people through different distribution channels, whether it’s the new mobile app which we’ve launched, whether it’s through more newsletters which we’ve launched, whether it’s through our audio offering which we’ve enhanced this year, and also the volume of content on our owned-and-operated [properties].

The big play has been volume, but it’s also been curating the content for the platform and finding ways to take advantage of using technologies. We weren’t having a conversation four years ago about TikTok. We didn’t have a bespoke mobile app four years ago. Those are areas where we’ve really seen growth.

Given that we’re now less than two weeks out from Election Day, election night — what’ll probably be election week, if not weeks — what are MSNBC’s Election Day/night/week coverage plans with regard to streaming and digital video platforms like YouTube and TikTok?

We’ll be covering not only the moment in time that is the final call, but it’s everything that happens afterwards. No matter how many days it takes for us to make that call, there’s still going to be a lot to talk about. We’ll have a new administration one way or another. And so we start to our ramp-up of coverage early. We’ll continue to do weekly newsletters. We’ll continue to do live blogs on big nights, and the election will be a big part of it. We’ve got a plan in place to keep that machine going, frankly, on television and digital nonstop for days and days on end, because we don’t know where the story will take us.

Part of the objective here — and I think even more enhanced compared to four years ago — is the fact that we see so many people consuming on these platforms. And so in the same way that we’re normally a television network that’s live 19 hours a day, we’ve got to keep the machine going on all of our platforms. And we’ve got a robust team in place to do that really starting Monday night, and it will continue likely through that entire week, nonstop.

I’m also hesitant to ask anyone in your position a question that looks past the election. But given the momentum that especially this election has given to news organizations like MSNBC and the inevitable — there’s always a post-election hangover, a drop in audience in the year following an election. Is there a newer or specific opportunity you’re seeing to help maintain some of the momentum you’ve generated this year, looking to 2025 and the post-election period?

I think the big opportunity is going to be supercharging and investing in the key growth areas. Things like our digital publishing, our app. We launched an events series this year; we’re going to continue to ramp that up in the coming year. No matter what happens in the outcome of the election, there’s still going to be so much content to create and information to bring to our audience in whatever the new year holds that we want to use all of those avenues, all of those mechanisms, all of those platforms to continue the momentum but also bring new content and bring in new audiences.

This article has been updated to reflect that MSNBC received more than 2 billion video views across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok in the third quarter of 2024. A previous version said it happened in Q3 2023.

What we’ve heard

“A lot of the clients that we were working with two years ago were maybe working with a handful of influencers — those now they’re working with hundreds. We actually have some clients that are working with thousands of influencers.”

— Viral Nation’s Kevin King

Numbers to know

88 million: Number of monthly active users for Samsung’s free, ad-supported streaming TV service Samsung TV Plus.

21%: Percentage share of U.K. streaming subscription sign-ups in the third quarter of 2024 that went to Disney+.

10,000: Number of shows that viewers using BBC’s iPlayer streaming service in total watched per day, on average, during the first half of 2024.

$750 million: How much money in tax credits California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing to offer for films and TV shows shot in the state.

What we’ve covered

Harris, Trump recognize power of creators as agencies advise pausing content as election nears:

• Both candidates have appeared on podcasts from creators like Alex Cooper and Joe Rogan.
• Some influencer marketing agencies are recommending clients avoid running campaigns with influencers around the election.

Read more about political campaigns’ creator courtship here.

From deepfakes to political leanings, agencies create brand safety products to flag creator risks:

• Brands are enlisting a larger number of creators in their marketing campaigns, which can increase the potential brand safety risks.
• Influencer agencies’ brand safety tools crawl a creator’s public history going as far back as 15 years for any possible red flags.

Read more about creators and brand safety here.

Marketers sound off on TikTok Shop:

• Brands are starting to redirect marketing and/or performance budgets toward TikTok’s e-commerce platform.
• That money previously came from brands’ so-called experimental budgets.

Read more about TikTok Shop here.

Why the NBA is helping basketball creators make longer YouTube videos:

• The league hired Twitch streamer Kai Cenat and TikTok creator Drew Afualo to promote its season tip-off.
• The NBA is also now providing creators with 25,000 hours of game footage from the past decade and 2,500 hours from the current season to use in their own content.

Read more about the NBA and creators here.

What we’re reading

Amazon’s pay-per-stream offer:

Years after Netflix flipped the programming payment model on its head with cost-plus, Amazon may be about to do the same by offering (albeit unsuccessfully) a per-view compensation to the producers behind Emerald Fennell’s and Margot Robbie’s upcoming film “Wuthering Heights,” according to Bloomberg.

Industry orgs vs. FTC:

Trade groups including one representing pay-TV providers and major media companies like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s rule that would require companies make it as easy for people to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up for one in the first place, according to Reuters.

Political ad dollars for creators:

Political advertisers are paying thousands of dollars for creators to endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in a single TikTok video or Instagram post ahead of next week’s U.S. presidential election, according to The Washington Post.

YouTube’s ad controls for creators:

The Google-owned video platform will allow creators to block ads from brands in certain categories from running on specific channels via YouTube Studio, according to Search Engine Land.