Atlanta-based HLN is re-branding itself as the network for the “social media generation,” meaning millennials and the “millennial minded.”
Its new slogan: “We’re not the news network. You are.”
Those considered millennials are people born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.
Network general manager Albie Hecht, who joined HLN last fall with a background in entertainment, compared the re-branding to that of MTV in the early 1980s as a way to attract Generation X. In a phone interview Tuesday from his home office in New York, he said he wants to create a “risk-taking, start-up mentality” at the network, where shows will be presented in non-traditional ways.
“We’re going to reflect the conversation going on in social media,” Hecht said. “Inspiring stories, animal stories, science and technology stories. At the same time, there will be some politics and world news events and American justice stories. They’re all part of the social media conversation.”
Millennials also happen to be the first generation getting entertainment on demand, often on tablets and smartphones. And even if they have televisions, many are relying on Netflix rather than a cable carrier.
“Television is not the destination for news for younger viewers — unless it’s on Comedy Central,” said Brad Adgate, research director at New York-based Horizon Media, which tracks and studies television viewing behavior. “This could be a work in progress. But if it pans out, it could be quite lucrative.”
HLN will better integrate its website to its TV network. It’s working on a specific HLN app, Hecht said.
Launched in 1982, CNN Headline News ran 30-minute cycles of news. But as the Web diverted that audience, it moved to talk shows and long-form programming, with heavy doses of news you can use and crime stories. In 2008, Headline News became HLN.
In recent months, the network has cut its news staff. On Monday night at 10, it began airing a syndicated TV show called “RightThisMinute,” which seeks out the most captivating web videos of the day and the stories behind them.
Shows in the fields of animation, reality, gaming and clip compilations will premiere later this year, some from outside production companies.
Nonetheless, Hecht said a vast majority of HLN programming will still come out of Atlanta.
For now, several existing shows will remain, including those hosted by Robin Meade, Jane Velez-Mitchell and Nancy Grace.
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