Exclusive: NBC News bets on Steve Kornacki with new subscriber franchise
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NBC News is launching a new, cross-platform franchise centered on Steve Kornacki's signature data-driven analysis, Kornacki told Axios in an interview.
Why it matters: The network is betting that one of its most recognizable on-air personalities can help drive sign-ups to the digital subscription offering it launched last year.
State of play: The "Data Dive With Steve Kornacki" franchise will bring Kornacki's analysis to a weekly, subscriber-exclusive newsletter.
- The email, publishing Tuesday mornings, will launch with a heavy focus on the 2026 midterms, offering readers a detailed breakdown of the numbers, trends and data points shaping the biggest stories in the election cycle, Kornacki says.
- "It's where we go real deep," Kornacki says. "I'm trying to give folks who are reading it a real sense of — when they start watching those results on primary night — where to be looking, what to be looking for and what the trends have been that might explain how this thing is going to shake out."
Between the lines: Eventually, Kornacki says he plans to widen his coverage beyond politics to sports.
- "It could be with the NFL, it could be with the Olympics, it could be with the NBA," he says, adding, "That's more, almost in my mind, phase two."
- Last year, Kornacki was named chief data analyst for NBC News and NBC Sports under a new contract that moved him away from MSNBC, now known as MS NOW, where he had been a host and correspondent.
Zoom out: Beyond the newsletter, the "Data Dive" branding will include all of Kornacki's published content on NBCNews.com.
- The franchise will be visible across NBC News TV, including "TODAY," "Nightly News," "Meet the Press" and NBC News NOW.
Catch up quick: "Data Dive" builds on the popularity of the "Kornacki Cam," an election-night livestream that has generated more than 25 million views across 14 election nights, according to data from an NBC News spokesperson.
- Kornacki said the streams began as an experiment but revealed an audience eager to spend hours following narrow returns in real time.
- "It turned out there was a pretty significant audience out there that wanted to spend hours ... watching the map slowly fill in, watching the returns come in county by county," he said.
- That experience, coupled with a broader sense of engagement in American politics right now, helped convince him and NBC News there was demand for an even deeper subscription offering.
The big picture: Kornacki's new franchise reflects a broader NBC News and industrywide push to build media businesses around individual talent.
- In addition to elevating its own journalists, NBC News has also hired external experts — such as tech journalist Joanna Stern — to boost its subscription offerings.
