Fusion celebrated its second anniversary with cake and champagne, and a promise from chief executive Isaac Lee that the network is on track.
“While we are still building awareness, we are reaching our target audience and growing at a faster pace than many of our competitors,” Lee wrote in a memo to Fusion staff. “More importantly our team has been an shining example of how excellent reporting can live across platforms with distinct content on digital, TV, social and OTT channels — reaching our audience with a FUSION-branded piece of content wherever they are. Across all platforms FUSION is now reaching approximately 25 million people a month.”
Lee specifically credited Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos, whose clashes with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump have brought the network attention. “We know Jorge will play a defining role throughout the 2016 election cycle and we are lucky to have him on our team.”
Here’s Lee’s full memo:
From: Isaac Lee
Date: Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 11:14 AM
Subject: Two Years
To: Fusion AllHola FUSION,
This week marks two years since we saw FUSION come to life with the launch of our cable network and we have all accomplished a tremendous amount since.
Our cable network has grown its distribution to nearly 40 million households, ranking it the top 10 historical cable network launches. We closed out the summer with year-to-date viewership increases in both primetime (+179%) and total day (+183%). We are also over-indexing with Hispanic (+85%) and African-American (+48%) households, according to our latest research.
Earlier this year we built and launched FUSION.net with a new, dedicated editorial team — adding a fast growing digital business to our portfolio. The site has more than tripled its traffic in just 8 months, reaching over 8.5 million monthly unique visitors, up from 2.5 million at the start of the year and is reaching a young audience (72% A18-34). In addition, we have expanded onto a range of digital and OTT platforms including Apple TV, Roku, Sling TV, Spotify, Vessel, among others.
So while we are still building awareness, we are reaching our target audience and growing at a faster pace than many of our competitors. More importantly our team has been an shining example of how excellent reporting can live across platforms with distinct content on digital, TV, social and OTT channels — reaching our audience with a FUSION-branded piece of content wherever they are. Across all platforms FUSION is now reaching approximately 25 million people a month.
This growth is driven by all of the great content you are generating every day. We have taken our viewers on journeys and inside stories that were undercovered by other outlets and that mattered greatly to our audience — FUSION’s coverage of youth protests around the world (Venezuela, Mexico, Ferguson, Wall Street); following the epic story of the El Chapo from fugitive to arrest to escape; being an early voice on transgender issues (from detention of transgender detainees to Alicia’s provoking interview with Janet Mock); giving voice to stories about equality and social justice like our eye-opening investigative project “Prison Kids.”
Week-after-week “AMERICA with Jorge Ramos” has generated headlines with newsmaking interviews and intrepid reporting. “AMERICA” has taken viewers everywhere from inside the CIA to the Middle East to the border. We know Jorge will play a defining role throughout the 2016 election cycle and we are lucky to have him on our team.
We have also introduced America to a new breed of political commentators — a talking hot dog, an alien immigrant, and conservative squirrel — and late night host in Chris Gethard. I am excited to see Paul F. Tompkins and the “No, You Shut Up!” team bring their unique approach to covering this campaign season. And these are just some of the examples that come to mind.
Additionally, your work has been recognized with nearly three dozen awards and nominations — most recently our investigative team received two Emmy nominations and FUSION was honored with three awards from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
I am proud to see how FUSION has evolved while always staying focused on giving a voice to a young, diverse America. FUSION has been built on a solid foundation thanks to your hard work and we will continue to be a company that will learn and adapt, push and pull, define and distinguish.
Cheers to two very successful years and to many more!!
Abrazos,
Isaac