BROADCASTS.com

As smartphones and tablets proliferate, news video is going mobile and picking up where broadcast news left off. Network evening news audiences have been dwindling for decades -- from audiences of over 50 million in 1980 to this year’s 22.1 million -- while online video use has skyrocketed. Traditional print pubs such as New York Times, Washington Post and WSJ have pushed deeper into video while startups such as NowThis News, Newsy and Storyful use quick videos, some as short as six seconds, to deliver news. In recent months, all three startups have established collaborations or have been acquired by traditional media outlets. This week, NBC News and NowThis News announced a partnership that will give the former around a ten percent stake in the startup. In December, media conglomerate E.W. Scripps acquired Newsy, and News Corp. acquired Storyful. This week, in our return from winter break, the Mediatwits will chat with NowThis News editor-in-chief Ed O’Keefe about the rise of short news video content. As usual, PBS MediaShift’s Mark Glaser will host the show, and we’ll be joined by regular panelists Andew Lih of American University and Monica Guzman of the Seattle Times and Geekwire.