Great Big Story to launch in the Nordics as CNN explores storytelling that’s not tied to the 24-hour news cycle

Great Big Story will be launching in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland in early 2017, in collaboration with Stockholm-based production company Storyfire, CNN announced today.

The CNN-backed venture launched in 2015 with the goal to cover untold stories in a unique voice, appealing to the mobile generation.

“We left it alone by design. We knew, to reach this audience authentically, we needed to leave it alone," said Andrew Morse, executive vice president, US editorial, and general manager of CNN Digital Worldwide, announcing the expansion at News Xchange in Denmark today (1 December),

"They’re in a different office and we let them work, we don't meddle... we don't try to CNN-ise them. We allowed them to develop their own voice, their own way of communicating.

“They spend as much time focusing on what not to do as they do on what to do, and I think that's really important. They have a voice and a discipline," he added.

Great Big Story produces video across five verticals: planet earth, frontiers, human condition, flavours, and origin. Its content reaches 10 million people across platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Apple TV and Roku, according to figures from CNN International Commercial, who set up the partnership with Storyfire.

CNN is also planning a further expansion into storytelling that’s not necessarily connected to the 24-hour news cycle, after the organisation acquired video-sharing app Beme earlier this week.

Together with the Beme co-founders, YouTube star Casey Neistat and Matt Hackett, former vice president of engineering at Tumblr, as well as the development team behind the app, CNN will launch a new media brand by the summer of 2017, designed to bring together technology and storytelling.

Beme will be closing down and all its employees will join CNN to work on the new venture and on new technologies for the organisation.

Like Great Big Story, which is designed as a "storytelling network" rather than a news channel, the new brand will be a stand-alone company that will operate as part of the CNN Digital portfolio.

"Casey, is he a traditional journalist? No, but he is one of the most powerful storytellers around, with a highly engaged audience.

“It will take a step back from the news. This won’t be news in the traditional sense of somebody with a microphone, but it will be highly topical and relevant," Morse said.

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