Scripps dropping Newsy name

E.W. Scripps has announced it will rebrand its Newsy offering under a new name come Jan. 1, 2023.

Newsy is currently offered as a free, over-the-air offering nationwide, often piggybacking onto a digital subchannel of a station and plans call for the content to remain largely same, but under the name Scripps News.

“In the creation of Scripps News, we are leveraging the company’s collective resources and building upon the equity of the Scripps name and stellar reputation for journalism,” Scripps president and CEO Adam Symson said in a statement. “The American people need greater access to free, quality local and national journalism produced by a company committed to fact-based news and information.” 

As part of the change, Newsy will drop the logo it introduced in September 2021 when it moved from a streaming model to over-the-air one.

At the time, the look became predominantly gray and violet with a highly angular look that featured an icon made of four arrows that formed the outline of an “N” in its negative space. About a month later, media monitoring company Nielsen unveiled a new look that had a similar shape.

For its new logo, Scripps News appears to have attempted to keep some connection to the Newsy look — relying on a blue that arguably has hints of violet.

The “N” icon has been replaced with a rendition of the company’s longtime lighthouse logo that uses two of the light beams to form the suggestion of the letter formed with two triangles — a look that has some similarities to the trapezoidal “N” NBC used in the 1970s.

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The font from the 2021 Newsy redesign has remained in place as well, though the design could always change as the relaunch nears.

Scripps has not announced detailed plans for specific programming, so it’s not clear what offerings will remain in place after the new year. It currently offers 24 hours of programming, including its signature “Newsy Tonight” at 8 p.m. eastern.

It’s perhaps easy to see why Scripps would want to migrate away from the Newsy name at this time toward what it likely feels is its storied name that’s rich in corporate history. 

Like most broadcast groups, its stations typically run the group logo near the end of broadcasts as part of the copyright notation. Some Scripps stations have even included the lighthouse logo prominently on set.

However, despite the rich history that the Scripps name has in the journalism industry, the average consumer might not be as familiar with it. “Newsy” is a decidedly catchy name and is short and to the point and pretty much says exactly what the service is. Scripps News is similarly straightforward — but also sounds stiffer and more corporate. 

Other station groups who have ventured into producing national and international or hybrid offerings have largely gone in the direction of developing new brand names, such as Sinclair’s The National Desk, Nexstar’s NewsNation, Gray’s Local News Live and Fox’s LiveNow.

CBS, on the other hand, appears to doubling-down on the CBS News name when branding new offerings, including using the “CBS News (City Name)” branding schema for streaming operations — with some signs pointing to the possibility of these names making their way to the legacy TV newscasts.

Newsy first launched in 2008 in Missouri. Its initial aim was to record multiple news outlets every day and then edit down different viewpoints and perspectives from them into short clips. This model relied on student workers from the nearby Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri.

Scripps bought the venture in 2014 and it eventually morphed into a more traditional news offering, one of several offerings that have been started in recent years in attempt to upset the cable news market dominated by CNN, MSNBC and Fox. 

Scripps will continue to operate Court TV under the direction of Kate O’Brian, who will also oversee Scripps News.

The Scripps version of Court TV was announced in 2018 after the company’s Katz Broadcasting division acquired the intellectual property and archive of the original Court TV network from Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros. It too is frequently offered on subchannels in various markets throughout the country.

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