Jun 16, 2022

In 2019, veteran journalist Mosheh Oinounou was an executive producer on “CBS Evening News,” a powerful job earned after years of working at other networks including Fox News and Bloomberg TV. In 2020, he went out on his own, but not to another TV channel. Instead, he pivoted to Instagram to help pioneer a new prototype of news service.

“Instagram felt like a place for a clean, fresh start,” he said at the time.

Oinounou (pronounced Wah-nu-nu) clearly thought it through: The Covid pandemic supercharged social media usage by both keeping people inside and on their devices and by creating a desire for easily understandable public health information on the virus (think charts, numbers and other simple graphics.) And the racial justice movement that swelled after the murder of George Floyd added fuel to the fire as imagery from rallies and protest symbols spread across Instagram.

He summarizes the day’s most important news on his Mo News account, curating a series of article screenshots in his Stories from the likes of The New York Times and other top outlets. Many of the images have his commentary typed in, with Oinounou breaking down the complexities of international relations, D.C. politics and more.

He does it pretty well, judging by his 242,000 followers, the newshounds who have followed in his footsteps and the attention the industry is paying him. And he expanded his offerings this year, writing weekly newsletters through Meta’s new Bulletin platform, designed to compete with Substack.