Video first news agency, NewsBeat Social, has filed a Regulation A+ offer with the SEC. The company is seeking a raise of up to $50 million – the maximum amount possible under Tier 2 of Regulation A+. NewsBeat Social has enlisted WR Hambrecht to manage the mini-IPO type offer and the company expects to trade shares on NASDAQ, under the ticker “NEWZ”, following a successful capital raising round.
NewsBeat Social is a platform that claims a 59 million unique monthly reach on Facebook. The company views their extended community as a powerful investor base to raise growth capital online.
“NewsBeat Social is re-inventing news at a time when consumers, advertisers and the industry are eager for change,” said Reese Schonfeld, co-founder of CNN and the FoodNetwork, and NewsBeat Social advisory board member. “Providing informed news, and delivering it via social media with an optimized consumer experience built for mobile, the company is building an approach to news that meets the expectations of today’s on- the-go, globally-minded news audiences.”
Geoff Campbell, President of NewsBeat, said this was an exciting phase in their growth. Giving viewers the chance to purchase shares in the young company is “core of our mission of maintaining an independent and transparent newsroom, while allowing them to benefit from our growth.”
The social media delivered news platform, that covers a broad range of topics, has produced over 30,000 video reports and more than 8 billion impressions with about 423 million views.
Seed round investor Peter Shea, who is owner of Entrepreneur Media, said;
“By looking at where consumers are consuming news, and how they want to consume it, NewsBeat Social is creating a new type of news that’s going to have a transformative effect on the industry.”
NewsBeat Social hit the internet in 2013. Founded by CEO Stanley Fields, the company has combined a solid list of experienced media executives to manage platform growth. Metrics indicate continued reach of video views and user engagement. Each daily video report (about 50 / day) are estimated to cost at less than $100 per report. By leveraging the viral distribution of social media, NewsBeat Social has driven their Facebook followers to 2.8 million fans.
Operating numbers indicate a net loss of over $10 million for the year ended December 2014. The net loss for the six months ended June 2015 stands at 
about $1.2 million. Going forward NewsBeat Social plans on launching an Uber like model and thus crowdsource content creation. Individuals will be hired on a per-story basis keeping content creation costs low. Revenue will be driven by selling advertising to accompany their one-minute reports. They also plan on subscriptions, indirect revenue from social media platforms and syndication revenue. Revenues for six months ending June of 2015 registered at just $64,167.
All of the financial information is available for prospective investors in their offering memorandum.
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