Spotlight Media Labs, Inc. was founded with the goal of reinvigorating the newspaper industry by creating a new generation of readers amongst college students and young alumni. The SpotlightNews® news aggregation application is the keystone of Spotlight’s strategy. Available as a native mobile app for iPhone and Android smartphones as well as a web app for desktops and tablets, the SpotlightNews® app provides a superior and consistent reading experience across the diverse and rapidly growing body of publications on the platform.
Unique amongst news apps, SpotlightNews® provides the user with full control of their newsfeed. Users select the publications to include in their newsfeed. They can also select a specific section of their favorite publications such as business, sports or opinion. In addition, users can select writers to follow or any of the numerous predefined topics available. Most significantly, users can use Spotlight’s powerful search feature to define topics of interest and add them to their newsfeed. Along with the potential for a large and evolving set of newsfeed elements, the user can reorder their feed and fully tailor it to their reading preferences.
Unlike other news applications, Spotlight does not play favorites with publishers or their content. All articles are presented without bias or censorship. On Spotlight the user will not see articles featured based on a “click bait” judgment or trending status. Regardless of the topic, all articles are scored for relevancy to the topic and then the highest scoring articles are presented in reverse chronological order based on when they were published. With Spotlight the user is really in full control of their news feed.
The SpotlightNews® app embodies a number of principles to insure the best possible reading experience including:
• No pop-up or takeover ads.
• No sponsored content or links.
• No censorship, all publisher content is available unchanged.
• No privacy concerns, personal information is never shared with publishers, advertisers, or other 3rd parties.
• No paywalls, the full article is always available.
Spotlight welcomes publishers large and small to the platform. Publications are on-boarded without charge to the publisher and revenue is generously shared with all content providers. In order to build a new generation of readers, Spotlight actively recruits college newspapers which hold a special attraction for both students and young alumni. Spotlight’s publisher partnerships already include 100 college newspapers as well as 300+ commercial and non-profit publications. The rapidly growing content library includes numerous local newspapers and newsrooms as well as topical publications covering business, sports, culture, politics, and more.
The Spotlight content library includes an ever-increasing number of normally paywalled, “Premium” publications. An ad-supported free subscription provides unlimited access to all non-premium publications and a limited number of articles each month from each of the premium publications. For a modest monthly or annual fee, users can upgrade to a Premium Subscription and unlock full access to premium publication content. Users can further upgrade to an Ad-free Subscription that replaces ad revenue with paid subscription revenue. Bulk Subscriptions are also available including plans tailored to schools and alumni associations.
Spotlight’s mission to reinvigorate the newspaper industry is powered by a diverse core creative team and an advisory board of industry experts and business executives.
We invite you to join the movement!
