The NowThis site (formerly called Planet Daily) currently pulls in newsy video clips from sites like Twitter, Facebook and--most typically--Buzzfeed, another Lerer Ventures portfolio company. The company's Twitter handle, @NowThisNews, is run by its social editor, Drake Martinet, who's also an adjunct professor at Stanford. Mr. Martinet said that 90 percent of the video content on the site is produced by the NowThis team.

"We're building a video news company, and today that means being native to the social web," Mr. Martinet told Betabeat by email. "We think of Twitter, Facebook and other social sites as our front page... thats where we want users to find and share our videos."

Last night, each time a state was called by one of the major news networks, NowThis tweeted a piece of ASCII art relating to that state. Seeing the graphics pop up on our Twitter feed every so often was a welcome break from typical political tweets--though not everyone enjoyed the flashback.

NowThis said it worked with noted Twitter ASCII artist Matthew Haggett, known on Twitter as "tw1tt3rart," to come up with the illustrations. "We wanted to try something ambitious and a little bit fun," they tweeted.

Check out some of our fav tweets in the slideshow.

Not the actual NowThis News headquarters, sadly. (Photo: DC Wikia

Ken Lerer's answer to the Daily Show--a video startup formerly known as Planet Daily--is stealth mode no more. Today the company announced its proper name--NowThis News--plus the identity of its executive team. The site will launch with a partnership with BuzzFeed in place, positioning the company's content to go viral like chickenpox in Mrs. Henderson's kindergarden class. The mission is about what we'd expected: to offer "video news for mobile and social news consumers." Finally, a real broadcast for those among us who turn YouTube in times of crisis!

However, as lifelong Lois Lane fans, we must register our disappointment that the site is losing its super-heroic code name. 

As previously reported, Katherine Zaleski (formerly of the Washington Post) will be charged with keeping things running smoothly as managing editor. The expanding executive team will include former ABC News Digital executive producer Ed O’Keefe, who will be editor-in-chief, and former CNN Chief News Exec Eason Jordan, who will be general manager. Other leaders hail from Vice Media, the Huffington Post, and AllThingsD.

Ken Lerer commented in a statement released today:

“We’re creating NowThis News to meet straight on the inevitable and rapid changes happening in news consumption: digital, mobile, social and video – that’s what NowThis News is about.”

Mr. Jordan, NowThis News's general manager, chimed in:

“As more and more people turn to mobile and social outlets for their news, now is the perfect time to launch a video news network built for the digital generation.”

The announcement didn't provide too many details on that BuzzFeed partnership, but apparently NowThis News will be getting a dedicated vertical within the viral content machine. According to the release, the company "will produce content that complements BuzzFeed editorial while producing its own original video news stories."

So, can we expect that November's election returns will be delivered by cute kittens?

Ms. Zaleski (LinkedIn.com)

Planet Daily, the video startup from Ken Lerer, is putting some of that $5 million in venture money to work with a big hire. Poytner reports that the would-be "CNN killer" has poached the Washington Post's executive director of digital news, Katharine Zaleski, to serve as managing editor.

From the email that went around the Post: 

After two and a half years inspiring and leading digital change here at The Post, Katharine Zaleski is returning to New York to take on a new role as managing editor of a startup media venture under the working name, “Planet Daily”. The idea is to build a 24-hour video channel for the mobile and social web. For Katharine, it’s a chance to get her old band back together: her key partners in the new project were her associates at The Huffington Post, Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau.

Are Mr. Lerer and Mr. Hippeau indeed getting the old band back together? We reached out to Lerer Ventures, but they had no comment.

Mr. Lerer (lererventures.com)

Planet Daily, the new video startup announced a few weeks ago by ex-HuffPo execs Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau, has raised $5 million from undisclosed investors, according to a Form D filed today with the SEC.

Planet Daily, which will reportedly launch this summer in time for the presidential elections, is a video news startup targeted at the Jon Stewart set. The service is a joint venture with Bedrocket Media, another startup that Mr. Lerer has invested in. Planet Daily has been touted as a "CNN killer," but they should probably set their sights a little higher, because who still watches CNN anyway?

We've reached out to the team at Lerer Ventures for more information on this, but word has it that they have a CEO summit today, so we haven't heard back yet. We'll update as soon as we know more.

Mr. Lerer (lererventures.com)

Do the guys over at Soho Tech Labs ever sleep? It would appear that the answer is no. Not only are they busy incubating social home exchange service CasaHop, which soft launches this week, but they're also working on a video news startup aimed at the "Jon Stewart set." Today, RebelMouse CEO and ex-HuffPo CTO Paul Berry told Business Insider that the previously-unnamed video startup has been giving a working title: Planet Daily.

According to an article published last month in AllThingsD, "the service, which will launch this summer in advance of the U.S. presidential elections, will use a mix of livestreaming video and taped reports, and a mix of professionally produced segments along with contributions from amateurs."

Planet Daily will be a collaboration between Lerer Ventures and Bedrocket Media, a video startup that Mr. Lerer invested in last year.

The only issue with the idea of starting a live news network dedicated to the young and the liberal? According to a profile in Esquire, Mr. Stewart apparently wants to do it himself--and we have a feeling there's only room for one "Roger Ailes of veracity" on the Internet.

The name "Planet Daily" is apparently a working title, which is good because if the team wants to nab the URL planetdaily.com, it appears they'll have to fight a middle-aged mom named Penny for it.