Cheddar’s Steinberg talks about sale to Altice

Jon Steinberg

Cheddar founder Jon Steinberg spoke with Cynthia Littleton of Variety about why he sold the business news network to Altice for $200 million.

Littleton writes, “Cheddar went through a similar process since its founding in 2016. In April, cable operator Altice USA brought the company for $200 million, after having invested in the company early on. There’s a natural evolutionary cycle to media startups that demand heavy-duty resources and distribution infrastructure to drive growth.

“‘Altice could never have built Cheddar inside Altice and I could never have built Altice from Cheddar,’ says Steinberg, who was named president of Altice News following the transaction.

“Steinberg also details Altice’s strategy of deploying three news brands — hyper-local News 12 serving Altice’s stronghold of Long Island and environs, Cheddar and the growing i24 News service with an emphasis on news from the Middle East.

“Steinberg opines that his experience with Cheddar — the focus on gaining TV distribution rather than internet traffic — has taught him a contrarian lesson about the media business. ‘Distribution is more important than content,’ he says. ‘No matter how good your content is, if you can’t get it out there no one is gong to see it or read it.'”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.