''Circa News'', also known as ''Circa'', was an American

online newspaper An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical. Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...

and entertainment service. The site was founded in 2012 by Matt Galligan,

Ben Huh Ben Huh is a South Korean-American internet entrepreneur and the former CEO of The Cheezburger Network, which at its peak in 2010 received 375 million views a month across its 50 sites.Chard, TheaCheezburger CEO Ben Huh on Surrounding Himself w ...

and Arsenio Santos. The service had news stories and features consisting of individual bits of information. The service went offline for financial reasons on 24 June 2015, and was then relaunched in spring 2016 under the ownership of the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...

media company.Jonathan Kuperberg
"Set to Launch Digital News Site Circa, Sinclair Taps John Solomon as COO"
''Broadcasting & Cable'', 12 July 2015 Under Sinclair, the website's coverage was described by some media outlets as

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

although the site claimed to report from a neutral point of view. The site was discontinued abruptly on 26 March 2019, with Sinclair stating that industry changes did not justify the continuation of ''Circa News'' as a website (and three days before sister property ''

KidsClick KidsClick is a former daily children's programming block distributed by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which premiered on July 1, 2017. The block, which primarily consisted of long-form animated series as well as some short-form content, was carried ...

'' was also closed with little notice). The former domain for the site now redirects to Sinclair's streaming portal, ''

Stirr Stirr is an American ad-supported video streaming service owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The streaming service is available on the web and via apps for iOS, Android devices and various streaming TV devices, including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, ...

''. Circa's

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accounts remained active but dormant, with their handles changed to the initials "TND"; Sinclair would later repurpose the accounts for its headline news service '' The National Desk'', removing all traces of Circa from the accounts, but also retaining the existing subscribers of those feeds.

History

Early years

On 16 October 2012, ''Circa'' launched its application for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

. The app featured news and information from different sources and viewpoints that were stitched together into a story designed to be shifted around and changed easily as stories developed. The founders' aim for ''Circa'' was "to pursue a more pure definition of news with truths divorced from conjecture, opinion or biased analysis". On 24 September 2014, ''Circa'' announced version 3.0 of its mobile applications. The update added a daily briefing service called "Wire", which aggregates top stories over a 24-hour period. Circa would expand from the app world to the internet in February 2015 with the announcement of a web version, CircaNews.com. On 30 April 2015, ''Circa'' announced that it was looking for a buyer after failing to obtain a new

funding round A securities offering (or funding round or investment round) is a discrete round of investment, by which a business or other enterprise raises money to fund operations, expansion, a capital project, an acquisition, or some other business purpose. ...

venture capital financing Venture capital financing is a type of funding by venture capital. It is private equity capital that can be provided at various stages or funding rounds. Common funding rounds include early-stage seed funding in high-potential, growth companies ( ...

. On 21 June 2015, ''Circa'' halted its news reporting operations for financial reasons. Three days later, on June 24, ''Circa'' announced that it would shut down and go on an "indefinite hiatus" following its inability to secure an buyer. CEO and co-founder Matt Galligan bade farewell to ''Circa'' in a blog post titled "Farewell to Circa News" in which, he admired the successes of ''Circa'', but lamented the company's failure to become a sustainable business.

Acquisition and relaunch

On November 22, 2015, a few former ''Circa'' employees reported that the ''CircaNews.com'' website was again active, stating a simple message that "Circa will be back soon...". A report by the

Nieman Journalism Lab The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...

said that the site's

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was registered a month earlier to

."Is Circa back? The mobile app might be returning via local TV stations"
''Nieman Lab'', 23 November 2015 Sinclair confirmed on 7 December 2015, that it had acquired Circa News, its

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and assets earlier in 2015, and aimed to relaunch ''Circa'' in spring 2016. The acquisition of ''Circa'' was to be funded by a Sinclair subsidiary (Sinclair Digital Ventures) and potentially other investors. ''Circa'' CEO Matt Galligan mentioned at its closure the previous June that the company could sell or " white-label" its technology to a news-producing company for use in its own apps. The revived ''Circa'' formally went live on 18 July 2016 with a redesigned app and a website using a new URL, Circa.com."CIRCA LAUNCHES EAGERLY-AWAITED ADVANCED WEBSITE..."
press release from SBGI, 18 July 2016 From December 2016, ''Circa was'' led by the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

John Solomon, the former vice-president of content and business development for ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...

''. Solomon was hired by Sinclair as ''Circas

chief creative officer A chief creative officer (CCO) is the highest ranking position of the creative team within a company. Depending on the type of company, this position may be responsible for the overall look and feel of marketing, media, and branding associated with ...

in December 2015. Solomon left ''Circa'' to join '' The Hill'' in July 2017. The app announced in March 2017 that it would be shutting down.

Ideology

Sinclair says that it aims to "let the content drive irca and not let the site adhere to any set political or cultural viewpoint, describing ''

Vice News Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice News was create ...

'' and ''

Breitbart ''Breitbart News Network'' (known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentary website founded in mid-2007 b ...

'' as "partisan-driven" news sites that the new ''Circa'' would not intentionally emulate. Though Sinclair has aired

political content on its stations, its stated intention with ''Circa'' was to present information with "no spin, just facts and transparency" and in "an irreverent tone" that will allow the site's target audience (young adults 18 to 35 years old) to form its own opinions. Circa's reporting has been characterized by other media outlets as

. ''Circa'' attracted attention for its reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which broke many stories seen to be favorable to the Trump administration. According to ''The Hill'', Circa's reporting on Russian interference has "only a peripheral focus on whether anyone in Trump’s inner circle had contact with Russian officials during the campaign". It has been reported that Sinclair had made an agreement with the Trump campaign to be given greater access in exchange for favorable coverage. Solomon said that reporting in many mainstream outlets was "reckless, false, unfair and imbalanced".

Features

Since its original iteration, the ''Circa''

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

and website have offered "atomization" of news rather than "summarization". "Atomization", as originally expressed by ''Circa'', means "to break down a story into its core elements: facts, stats, quotes and media", as opposed to a summary where content is reduced for quicker reading or users are linked elsewhere for the full story. Circa initially pushed multiple updates, also known as "points", over the days, weeks and months as stories continued to develop. The ''Circa'' app also allowed users to "follow" particular stories in order to receive future developments. As relaunched in 2016, the ''Circa'' app and the ''Circa.com'' website retained the original "atomization" approach to delivering the news. The redesigned ''Circa'' emphasized "short- and long-form video, optimized for mobile and social media engagement". ''Circa'' utilizes original reporting from its own 80-person staff,

user-generated content User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...

and access to

video feed Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

s and reportage from Sinclair's 172 owned-or-operated

TV stations A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

."Sinclair Acquired and Will Relaunch Mobile News Site Circa"
''The Wall Street Journal'', 12 July 2015 Circa features several portals and micro-sites accessible through its website, app and social media platforms. These include: *''Circa Now'', a portal for top stories and breaking developments *''60 Seconds'', a one-minute twice-daily summary of the day's news emphasizing text prompts and images optimized for mobile viewing and social media sharing *''The Great American Pop Report'', a fast-moving summary of pop culture and social media buzz *''Circa Documentaries'', long- and short-form documentaries exploring serious issues and topics *''Circa Moments'', daily news segments produced to air on Sinclair's owned-and-operated TV stations *''Circa 360'', news, entertainment, and branded advertisements shot entirely in a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

format"Circa launches VR 360 content and ad platform"
press release from SBGI, 28 September 2016 *''Circa Humor'', topical parodies, satirical content, and humorous videos produced under the supervision of

David Zucker David Samuel Zucker (born October 16, 1947) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Associated mostly with parody comedies, Zucker is recognized as the director and writer of the critically successful 1980 film ''Airplane!'' ...

."A New Comedy Brand for Millennials"
a press release from SBGI, 26 September 2016 *''It's Complicated'', a series of videos discussing all aspects of dating life for millennials, including "ghosting", "cuffing" and "when to meet the parents". First shown 18 October 2017.

History

Early years

Acquisition and relaunch

Ideology

Features

See also

References

Further reading