With an election year looming, the world of cable news seems as if it’s in a state of disarray. A series of high-profile exits, including CNN’s chief executive Chris Licht and Fox News’ ratings juggernaut Tucker Carlson, along with the continued erosion of linear TV viewership, have contributed to the uneasiness. But for some, this period of discord before cable news’ typical time to shine presents an opportunity to fight toward the top of the network hierarchy. 

“[Our] competitors have been around for decades, and their audiences are shrinking,” said Jonathan Killian, VP of creative marketing and brand communications for NewsNation, the Nexstar-owned news network.

To this end, NewsNation, which pegs itself as “unbiased, straight-facts” news, is taking a local approach to its marketing efforts to build its viewer base targeted at middle America. In May, NewsNation held its first fan activation at the Indianapolis 500, where “Morning in America” host Adrienne Bankert and executives held conversations with attendees of the annual race to build awareness for the station.

Now, the team is heading to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to sponsoring the fair’s nightly fireworks show and doing branded giveaways, NewsNation will broadcast Friday’s episodes of “Morning in America” and “On Balance with Leland Vittert” and conduct on-the-ground polling amidst the festivities. The network will also erect large screens for attendees to watch a corresponding live town hall with Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

“From an awareness standpoint, it’s very much a long game,” said Killian. “[We’re] building a network one viewer at a time, literally, and we’re a bit old school in that we believe in going to places like the Iowa State Fair and the Indianapolis 500 to meet viewers one-by-one … Do you see CNN at the Indianapolis 500? Do you see Fox News at the Iowa State Fair? Our competitors aren’t doing these things—they’re not meeting Middle America where they are because they don’t care.”

The town hall with Ramaswamy is the counterpart to a previous town hall NewsNation conducted with Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., which brought in 200,000 viewers for the network. The two town halls exemplify Killian’s description of NewsNation’s promise: Viewers hear from the political left and right and can make up their own minds about the rest.

“Places like the Iowa State Fair—it’s literally the geographic middle of the country, but it’s also the sensible middle,” said Killian. “That’s who our people are, and we’re hoping to convert a lot more.”

Killian, who held branding positions at CNN International from 2008 to 2021, describes NewsNation as the underdog facing the big three competitors—MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. Prime time viewership on the three networks has declined as much as 24%, 37% and 50% respectively from July 2022 to July 2023 in the coveted 25 to 54 age demographic, according to Nielsen. NewsNation has grown 260% over the same period, albeit off a much lower base. 

NewsNation averaged 92,000 cable primetime total viewers in July 2023, while CNN averaged 497,000, MSNBC averaged 1.07 million and Fox News averaged 1.57 million.

NewsNation grew ad commitment volume during this year’s upfront by 20-25%, the company confirmed to Ad Age, including striking deals with 15 new advertisers.