Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest local TV company in the country, announced it will relaunch the Circa brand in the Spring of 2016.
Circa launched to great fanfare in 2012 and was hailed as a leader in a new medium for news. The app broke news stories down to easily digestible nuggets designed especially for the mobile screen. The format, which saw each page give single snippets like a quote, picture or news paragraph, allowed users the ability to personalize their news stream. The platform reached more than 300,000 users at its peak.
The same format can now be seen in the New York Times’ NYTNow and Al Jazeera’s AJPlus.
The startup was based in NYC and raised more than $6 million, but ultimately shut down in June 2015 after a funding round fell through.
John Solomon will head up the new Circa as chief creative officer. Solomon was recently VP of content for the Washington Post and spent 20 years as a reporter for the Associated Press. The new Circa will remain an independent entity, but will be based in Washington D.C. (where Sinclair HQ is located) and Seattle, but will retain a New York bureau and a presence in L.A.
Sinclair Broadcast Group paid $800,000 for the intellectual property rights for Circa in March, which included the brand and the mobile app technology that allowed for personalized following of news streams. “We decided to purchase the Circa brand and reader-friendly, patented technology, rather than take years to build ourselves,” said Rob Weisbord, VP and COO of Sinclair’s Digital Group, in a statement.
Given the new owners, it makes sense that the new Circa app would feature more video than the original. “Circa’s focus will be on issues trending from around the country, delivered in an independent-minded style, with a heavy focus on short and long form video, optimized for mobile and social media engagement,” Solomon said.
The new Circa will have access to video from the 172 local TV stations that Sinclair Broadcast Group owns across 81 markets. It’s also an opportunity for Sinclair to reach a younger audience who are less likely to watch local news on TV.
Sinclair Group said it expects to invest $9 million in building the new Circa in the first year, more than the company raised in its 3 years as a startup. Circa is expected to hire more than 70 journalists focusing on original reporting. It is not clear if any of the former Circa team will be involved.
