MUMBAI: She has been a vociferous anchor on primetime news. She has been a fierce role model for women in the media industry. And now she’s embarking on a new journey as an independent content creator. Faye D'Souza, former Mirror Now executive editor, spilt the beans about her new channel ‘Facts First with Faye’ that launched last week in a joint venture with Firework India – a short-video sharing app.

Facts First with Faye is an information-based channel, wherein the firebrand journalist will speak on global and national news stories in 30-seconds.

D’Souza, speaking to Indiantelevision.com, said, “Though the format of news sharing is 30-seconds, the offering is credibility as there has been an erosion of credibility of mainstream media. And, that’s causing the audience to look outside for news that’s not adulterated by any sort of compulsion.”

Adding further, she said, “Don’t see mainstream media as competition at all. And, if mainstream media was able to hold its audience, it wouldn’t be looking for information in independent digital sources.”

D’Souza clarifies that she isn’t an employee of Firework India. Rather it is a partnership through a revenue-sharing model. She added that the primary aim is to get as much as the traction of premium and intelligent consumers on the channel and eventually on the platform.

Terming it as an exciting journey to work with Firework India, D’Souza explained, “The challenge for me, especially, coming from the television is to tell news in 30 seconds and I believe we are doing fairly well so far and hope the audience resonates with it.”

Going forward the channel will also have an interactive chat session through conversations with the audience of all the important stories of the day. “Rather than watching a debate on television, the audience can participate in the conversation with the help of a new chat feature,” she revealed.

On Firework, content generation is not measured in hours. For now, her channel is posting an average of four stories per day. The content is information-based and not opinionated that audiences can watch ‘on the go’.

D’Souza clarified that Facts First With Faye is one of the projects she is working on multiple content creation platforms.

The channel has already garnered at least 727 followers. The videos shared are simple and have her giving a piece-to-camera interspersed with graphics.

Firework launched its video network in India in October 2019 and takes pride in its two-step moderation protocol. While its moderation is largely based on AI algorithms, its content also goes through careful human moderation.