Mashable’s new chief content officer Greg Gittrich laid out the company’s new strategy in a memo released online on Monday.
The social news site recently made a serious commitment to producing video that will be distributed via Turner Broadcasting.
“Our young, social audience is increasingly getting information by watching video, whether that’s on our site or on platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, OTT, Instagram or television,” Gittrich said. “While there’s no question video is vital to our success, all formats of storytelling are important to us.”
“Going forward, we’ll tell stories with text, video, illustrations and animations,” he continued. “We’ll always keep in mind what’s the best way for us to tell stories for our audience on the platforms where they spend most of their time.”
Gittrich also promised that Mashable will still cover breaking news. “We’ll continue to deliver well-reported, original stories, analysis, reviews, features and profiles in our core coverage areas of tech, entertainment, science, web culture, business, social media, lifestyle, and real-time news,” he said. “The notable change is that we’ve decided not to focus on general interest news and broad coverage of the world.”
“There have been a few inaccurate comments externally about how the recent changes could hurt the quality of our journalism,” he added. “I want to be very clear that we’ll continue to operate a world-class, global newsroom reporting with credibility and accuracy.”
Last week, Time Warner unit Turner led a $15 million investment round in Mashable. As part of the deal, Turner networks TBS and TNT are slated to develop and distribute video with the youth-focused news site, extending its reach to linear television.
Mashable also laid off an unspecified number of staffers, a top editor and a c-suite executive as part of the shift in focus to video and television.
In a memo posted on LinkedIn, Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore said that the company “must part ways with some … colleagues.” He said executive editor Jim Roberts and chief revenue officer Seth Rogin both are leaving as part of the reorganization.