Current Unveils New Content Affiliate Program

LONDON, December 3: The youth-targeted peer-to-peer news and information network Current has launched a new content affiliate program in partnership with The Guardian in the U.K. and the U.S. news and entertainment website Salon, featuring “vlogs” supplied by journalists and bloggers.

Current will package a single vlog each day for television supplied by correspondents from The Guardian and Salon as well as create a web-friendly version that will live on Current.com, Salon.com and Guardian.co.uk. Vlogs on Current.com that generate dialogue with its online community have the potential to be repackaged for Current TV.

Journalists from The Guardian who will be producing vlogs for Current include Dave Hill, John Harris, Seth Freedman and Anna Pickard. Salon correspondents who will be contributing include Alex Koppelman, Tracy Clark-Flory, Rebecca Traister and Farhad Manjoo.

Current’s content affiliate program is intended to give top media brands more exposure to Current’s core audience of 18-34-year-olds via a new vlogging format on both Current TV and current.com, while also providing media brands with Current-produced vlogs for their own websites.

“Current is committed to meeting the ever-evolving needs of our young adult audience, so it is important for us to align with brands that are well respected media leaders,” said Joanna Drake Earl, the president of new media for Current. “This program gives journalists and bloggers from other established content providers, such as The Guardian and Salon, an opportunity to be seen and heard within Current’s community, while we engage them in conversation with our online and TV audiences about subjects that they are covering everyday.”

Founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt, Current is a television network whose schedule—which is made up of short form, non-fiction, program "pods" averaging 3- to 8- minutes—is dictated by the viewers via the Current website who have the power to vote or “green light” programs onto the network.

—By Irene Lew