You’d be hard pressed to find a nicer human in the Australian media industry than Stevie Jacobs. Many would be forgiven for thinking the zest and joy The former Today Show weatherman brought to his reports was all ‘put on’.
Spoiler alert: It’s not.
But, just because Jacobs is affable and open, doesn’t mean he isn’t selective when it comes to the projects he takes on. It’s this approach that has seen Jacobs cherry pick the roles he’s done over the past few years, or rather, the part-time roles, with “dad” the main focus for the 58-year-old.
“I’ve had to take a few years off working full time and traveling because my two girls needed me,” Jacobs told Mediaweek.
“With The Today Show, I was away for probably 250 days a year, and that just didn’t work with with kids. Then I I sort of became a single dad, so I just couldn’t travel. I couldn’t be away from home,” he said.
Former The Today Show weatherman Stevie Jacobs has joined the team at LeadStory as their Travel Reporter and Brand Ambassador.
That’s changed now with his “beautiful girls growing up” leading Jacobs to team-up with the Australian-founded, global news platform, LeadStory.
Haven’t heard of it? Don’t worry, neither had Jacobs. That is until he realised he’d actually been watching the platform on a daily basis.
The brainchild of former Seven News senior reporter Cam Price and his co-founder Cheyne Wallace, LeadStory launched in 2021 initially as a web and mobile app, as a way to give audiences around the world access to high-quality broadcast news on-demand.
Since then the company has exploded, signing licensed content partnership deals with some of the world’s biggest news publishers including CNN, CBS, CNBC, Reuters, Deutsche Welle, and Channel 10 here in Australia.
The landing page for LeadStory.
Along with the web and mobile app, the company also struck a deal with Samsung TV Plus – a free ad-supported streaming television service owned by the company and introduced back in 2015.
“We’re thrilled to have an incredibly engaged and rapidly growing international audience of 10million+ viewers per month who watch our service on the web, via mobile/app and, most notably, on our FAST TV channels Breaking News Channel by LeadStory and Your News Channel by LeadStory – the world’s first personalised TV channel,” Price told Mediaweek.
Price says the addition of native advertising – something they started implementing 18 months ago – has now become a “key part of the broader business, supplementing traditional advertising returns”.
“As opposed to traditional TV, we leverage technology to deliver a dynamic, personalised news experience based on our viewers interests and behaviours. This means that what our viewers see is catered to them and their interests. And, unlike traditional earned media content, clients work directly with us on the production of the story,” Price said.
They’ve already notched up a solid resume of clients as well, including Koh, Montu and Mosh, with the company recording a ~92% completion rate for viewers watching content across their platforms.
It’s since led Price and his team to scout out other ways to push the offering.
“Amid a fairly heavy news cycle over recent months – wars, a fiercely fought U.S. election campaign and ongoing cost of living pain – we have seen huge audience demand for good news stories too,” he explained.
“We know our audience love to travel and they lap up travel and lifestyle content – so we saw travel as a logical next vertical to expand our native advertising offering into,” he explained.
And that’s where Jacobs comes in.
The seasoned presenter will now head-up the company’s native advertising travel offering, acting as both reporter and co-producer on news-led travel stories with both domestic and international tourism, hospitality and travel brands.
“I’ve got lots of contacts in the travel space from my many years at The Today Show,” he said.
“I’m going out to market and to my contacts and bringing in partners from the travel industry. Plus, these are really interesting travel stories that have actually got some backbone to them.”
Tourism Fiji has agreed to partner with LeadStory for their native advertising offering.
The company has already landed its first client, with Tourism Fiji partnering with the crew for five feature stories which they will begin shooting in early March and roll out over the next two quarters to align with key dates and campaigns in the client’s calendar.
Head of communications AU at Tourism Fiji, Sarah-Louise Robinson, told Mediaweek“the collaboration aligns perfectly with Tourism Fiji’s regional marketing strategy, where engaging destination content plays a crucial role for us.
“Our past success with FAST TV has shown just how impactful this growing, free-to-access medium can be in connecting with new audiences,” she said.
Jacobs couldn’t be more excited.
“Studies have shown Fijians are the happiest people on the planet and, it’s safe to say, the LeadStory team are also grinning from cheek to cheek to have Tourism Fiji onboard as our launch partner in the travel space.
“You know, these are stories that need to be told. They’re global stories because it’s ultimately about winding back technology, about being friendly, about the Bula mentality. It’s about family and community.
“All these stories that we’re doing are important stories, that happen to be travel based, but are news led,” he said.
Pictured: Stevie Jacobs