theGrio, the NBC News unit which targets African Americans, has built a growing audience and revenue model with original video, says co-founder Barion Grant in this interview with Beet TV.

Grant spoke at a recent online video news forum at the Columbia Journalism School hosted by duPont-Columbia Awards and the Online News Association

He says social media has enabled the site to have a “top down bottom up approach” to building a more organic audience.

NBC News-owned site, targeting African Americans, has over 400,000 Facebook fans.

More the growing impact of theGrio in this story on paidContent.

Nitya Rajan