Free-associate the phrase “college student,” and quickly you’ll come up with “pizza,” “beer” and “no money” (the last often caused by the first two). The idea of the scrimping student has been around presumably ever since the telephone was invented and parents were more easily reminded of their child’s pressing need for cash.
But a fresh news network might be able to help. Who better to teach millennials about their spending habits than the former president and chief operating officer of BuzzFeed, the quintessential 20-something time-waster? When he joined the company in 2010, Jon Steinberg was the fledgling media site’s 15th employee. By the time he left, just four years later, he’d managed to increase the staff size more than 30-fold. If that isn’t enough of a resume, Steinberg had previously founded a software company and worked at Google.
It’s safe to say Steinberg is primed for success when it comes to this next project, a finance channel aimed at younger generations. The cute and aptly named Cheddar, which is set to begin broadcasting in May, might bring to mind the cable networks CNBC or Bloomberg.
But Cheddar is different. For starters, no one older than 40 will be in the spotlight. The dress will be more casual, too. The idea is simple: Kids don’t want to hear from crotchety old adults hoarding their stacks of gold coins, right? Cheddar is out to prove young people themselves are the best way to reach a budding crop of consumers.
The broadcasting stream live for an hour or two from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, but the details of the channel’s home are a little hazier. Steinberg has said that in the age of Netflix, Amazon and other streaming sites, there’s no reason he should have to produce the content and host it online, but where it will end up remains to be seen.
There’s arguably no better time for Cheddar’s launch. Twenty-somethings are worried about the future, according to a study by the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. They’re concerned about the heath of Social Security and their own financial health as they age. In fact, almost 70 percent of the age group has already started saving for retirement. Yet millennials’ cautious natures might also be rooted in the weight some have carried since their teens: college debt.
Earlier this month, former California law student Anna Alaburda spoke in front of a judge as one of many who have graduated with perfectly good degrees and found no place to put them to work. Alaburda, who carries the college debt equivalent to a shiny new Lamborghini, might be an extreme case, but for many, the price of education truly is a major setback. Pew Research Center estimates 40 percent of households headed by someone under 35 have some sort of college debt.
So where does Cheddar come in? There’s a perception that young people don’t care about finances, despite research that shows the opposite. Steinberg wants to teach millennials about stocks, investing and technology in a way they can relate to and on a platform that’s part of their daily routine — and that should give college students something to cheese about.
