Each month, Gray Television recognizes one of its station’s use of their OTT digital desk with an OTT MVP Award or ‘OTTy Award’.

The July winner is KHNL/KGMB, the NBC and CBS affiliates in Hawaii branded together as Hawaii News Now.

According to an announcement from Gray, KHNL/KGMB has built a brand around their OTT desk called ‘This is NOW’ in just two years.

Jonathan Saupe, who co-hosts the mid-day news on Hawaii News Now, has become the face of Gray Television’s Local News Live.

“The show I produce is called This Is Now,” Saupe says. “We produce a lot of content in almost sort of a traditional newscast, but I call it more of a video podcast vibe.”

The show has become so popular that it became the station’s mid-day newscast broadcast over the air on their NBC affiliate.

The digital desk allows them to truly live up to their brand ‘This is NOW’.

“That’s probably the most important thing, how quickly we can get things on the air or on digital just like that,” Saupe says. “Instead of having to overproduce and overthink things when something is happening, we can get it in here and get it on in seconds, which is a huge advantage to our viewers and to our newsroom.”

Saupe’s advice for other Gray TV digital desks who are working to launch their desks is to encourage all of the journalists in the newsroom to learn the technology.

“Once you learn, it is so empowering,” he says. “It allows you to tell stories in so many different ways you never thought you could.”

Saupe has been with Gray Television for more than 20 years, spending the last 11 years at Hawaii News Now. He has been an award-winning special projects producer, executive producer, photographer and more.

“I was never really an on-air talent, it wasn’t something I ever thought I’d be good at,” he says. “But combining all my skills together, this room let me do that in a totally different way that I never expected.”

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