Lotte Jones, Chief Commercial Officer at The News Movement, on why the social-first news model exists to reach a generation that gets its news from social platforms, why brand partnerships replaced subscriptions as the primary revenue model, and what responsible storytelling looks like when your audience is Gen Z.
"We always say: don't assume any prior knowledge and take people on a journey."
How The News Movement built a social-first news brand for Gen Z and why brand partnerships replaced subscriptions
Lotte Jones grew up on the agency side, ran her own consumer agency, sold it to Teneo in the US, and then transposed what she had learned about reputation management and corporate storytelling into a media business. The News Movement was founded out of frustration with the proliferation of misinformation online, with the ambition of fusing journalistic rigour with the dynamism of social media to bring credible news to a generation that was consuming it almost exclusively through social platforms.
In this conversation Jones explains why the subscription model was never viable for a Gen Z news brand, why brand partnerships became the primary revenue model, and what those partnerships look like when done well. The example she gives is Telus, the Canadian mobile operator, whose social capitalism ethos was brought to life through authentic community storytelling rather than conventional advertising. The principle is consistent: enter into a conversation with the audience rather than selling at them.
"We are a social-first news company. We have two newsrooms for our predominant news brand, TNM. We were founded out of the frustration with the proliferation of misinformation online and, as a result of that, wanted to fuse the rigour and editorial craft of journalism with the dynamism of social media and bring news to a new generation. Originally our focus has always been on younger people, Gen Z particularly."
The founding insight of The News Movement is structural. Misinformation spreads on social media in part because credible journalism does not have a social-native presence. Traditional news organisations adapted their existing formats for social as a secondary channel. TNM was built from the start for social as the primary channel, with journalists who understand the format, the pacing, and the culture of each platform.
"Every single social media platform. Everything from X to Instagram, TikTok is huge for us, and YouTube. Just because we produce something for TikTok does not mean we just recycle it and shove it up on Instagram. YouTube for us is where we do a lot of long-form documentaries. But that would not work on Instagram where things need to be snappy and delivered in a creative way."
The platform-native discipline at TNM goes beyond format adaptation. Each platform has its own audience behaviour, its own editorial conventions, and its own content economics. A documentary about the trunk problem in Philadelphia that takes months of preparation is right for YouTube's long-form audience. The same story distilled into a ninety-second explainer is right for TikTok. Understanding not just the format but the editorial language of each platform is what distinguishes social-first journalism from social media management.
"Lazy logic would suggest that in setting up a news brand, you create subscriptions, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. However, obviously, young people and the way that social media is built are not necessarily going to part with money in the same way. So for us, it is much more about bringing creative brand storytelling to young people in a way that does not mean they are just being sold at, but you are entering into a conversation with them."
The subscription challenge for social-first news is both economic and cultural. Economically, the audience has been trained to expect social content for free. Culturally, the format of social media is frictionless and subscription introduces friction. Jones does not dismiss subscriptions as a future possibility but is clear that at the current scale and with a Gen Z audience, brand partnerships offer a more viable route to revenue while keeping the editorial experience aligned with the platform context.
"We worked with Telus, which is the biggest mobile phone operator in Canada, and they are quite famous for a notion of social capitalism, giving back to the communities you operate in. We worked with a Canadian creator to go to those community initiatives and really bring to life the stories in ways that did not feel patronising. It did not feel like a dad at the disco. It invited a community of understanding around what it is they do that was totally separate from selling network."
The Telus example illustrates the editorial standard that Jones applies to brand partnerships. The story has to serve the audience, not the brand. It has to be told in a way that is credible, non-patronising, and genuinely interesting to the people watching it. The fact that Telus benefits from the association is a commercial outcome but not the editorial objective. This distinction, between telling stories that happen to involve brands versus telling advertising that is dressed as stories, is what makes The News Movement's brand partnerships viable as an editorial model.
"Our newsrooms do skew towards Gen Z. We hired a lot of journalists straight out of journalism school, partly to hire them when the craft of journalism was still very much instilled in them. However, they also bring with them the perspective of the audience we are trying to reach. There is an element of talking to the audience through themselves."
The hiring philosophy at TNM solves a structural problem that legacy media organisations have struggled with: how to reach younger audiences when the people making editorial decisions do not share the perspective, reference points, or media habits of that audience. By hiring journalists who are themselves Gen Z and have the dual qualification of journalistic training and native platform literacy, TNM produces content that is credible by journalistic standards and resonant by audience standards simultaneously.
"We wanted to fuse the rigour of journalism with the dynamism of social media."
Host Give us a snapshot on the News Movement.
Jones We are a social-first news company. We have two newsrooms for our predominant news brand, TNM, based across London and New York. We also oversee The Recount, a political feed in the US. We were founded out of frustration with the proliferation of misinformation online and wanted to fuse the rigour and editorial craft of journalism with the dynamism of social media and bring news to a new generation. Our focus has always been on younger people, Gen Z particularly.
Host Bring it to life a little bit.
Jones We hire a lot of journalists straight out of journalism school partly because the craft of journalism is still very much instilled in them. They also bring the perspective of the audience we are trying to reach. We cover everything from breaking news through to world politics through to trending online. We always start with where Ukraine is on the map. We do not assume any prior knowledge and take people on a journey through the eyes of the audience we are trying to reach.
Host How is your content consumed?
Jones Every single social media platform. Everything from X to Instagram. TikTok is huge for us and YouTube. Just because we produce something for TikTok does not mean we just recycle it up on Instagram. YouTube is where we do quite a lot of long-form documentaries. That would not work on Instagram where things need to be snappy and delivered in a quick creative way.
Host How would you describe your business model?
Jones Brand partnerships. Lazy logic would suggest that in setting up a news brand, you create subscriptions and cross your fingers. However, young people are not necessarily going to part with money in the same way. So for us it is much more about bringing creative brand storytelling to young people in a way that does not mean they are just being sold at but you are entering into a conversation with them. We worked with Telus, the biggest mobile phone operator in Canada, famous for a notion of social capitalism. We worked with a Canadian creator to go to those community initiatives and bring to life stories in ways that did not feel patronising. It did not feel like a dad at the disco.
Host Tell me about your background and how you ended up here.
Jones I grew up on agency side. I started in the third sector, then worked in corporate comms for many years before starting my own consumer agency which I led and sold to Teneo in the US. That was a corporate consultancy advising C-suites about big reputation turnarounds. What I am really passionate about is building a business that works with companies undergoing transformation, scrutiny, or reputation challenges who want to tell their story in interesting ways. I transposed that agency model to the media world.
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