Latr this month a few thouand of MS NOW‘s biggest fans will descend on College Park Center at the University of Texas at Arlington for what the news brand says will be its biggest event yet: “MS NOW Live: Together in Texas.”
The event comes at a critical moment for MS NOW, which this week launched its first subscription offering, the MS NOW membership. The Texas event, it turns out, will be a testing ground, in more ways than one. MS NOW members attending the live event will discover a dedicated members lounge, with a bar, comfortable seating, and the opportunity to mingle with other super fans as well as some of the channel’s talent.
“As a long timer in our business, I feel like it’s really, really different,” says Marcus Mabry, MS NOW’s senior VP of content strategy, “I’ve never had anything like this in any other news space I’ve been in, we actually want to emphasize people being together, and that’s really powerful.”
“We’ve ignored humanity for some reason,” he adds. “So even down to the decor, the offerings of food and beverage, even down to that, it’s about warmth and celebration, and it celebrates of our democracy, which we don’t often do that much these days in our country.”
Mabry says that MS NOW intends to pop up member lounges throughout the year, likely tied to live MS NOW events or news events, a real-life benefit to a digital subscription, and one of many features that executives at the cable channel hope will help it stand out in a crowded space for subscriptions.
