Nexstar‘s “The Hill” hopes to get a bump from offering a new tier of content to hard-core subscribers.
The Washington, D.C. publication, which analyzes politics and policy for people focused on inside-the-Beltway going-ons, is on Wednesday launching “The Hill Insider,” a new subscription tier that features access to premium newsletters, live interactive video calls with the publication’s journalists and deeper reportage that offers more detail and analysis about some of the biggest stories of the day.
The new service represents the first subscription product from Nexstar.
The new product is for Washington, D.C. denizens, says Bill Sammon, senior vice president of editorial content for “The Hill,” but also for a broad, national audience that simply wants more information about how things work in the nation’s capital. “The truth is, 95% of our audience is national, outside the Beltway. Most of our readers are spread across the fruited plain,” says Sammon, during a recent interview. “You don’t have to be in Washington to be in the game, You can be in Wichita.”
Launch of the new content tier shows Nexstar, which also operates dozens of local TV stations across the U.S., seeking broader support for “The Hill,” which has covered politics and policy since its founding in 1994. Earlier this year, business executives tied to “The Hill” made a presentation to New York media agencies in a bid to capture attention from buyers who handle some of the “advocacy” clients that often hope to reach the publication’s audience.
