NewsNation, a 24-hour cable news network owned by Nexstar Media Group, built its reputation on balanced, fact-first journalism delivered at the pace of breaking news. As the fastest-growing cable network in the US, its teams need to create and update visuals instantly, and any creative delay risks losing both momentum and audience trust.

The team’s traditional workflows couldn’t keep up. Even small, last-minute changes — like swapping a guest's headshot minutes before air to promote it on social media — required designers to intervene, setting up review cycles, and creating bottlenecks at the busiest moments in the news cycle.

To move faster, NewsNation’s design and digital teams turned to Adobe Express, giving producers the ability to create on-brand graphics themselves. Adobe Express is a platform purpose-built for scaling creative work efficiently, empowering non-designers to create on-brand assets in minutes, using pre-approved templates.

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Siena Esposito, creative director of design, and Chris Inthavong, graphic designer, led the implementation of Adobe Express, working closely with designer Lauren Cowin to bring the system to life. Adobe Express, integrated with Adobe Photoshop, enables the team to build and export layouts, enforce brand standards with locked elements, character limits, and approved color palettes, and publish confidently within brand guidelines without waiting for design sign-off.

“Express allows digital producers to update a headline or swap a headshot right before the show happens,” Esposito says.

“And we know every post still looks on-brand,” Cowin adds. “We built something that lets everyone move faster without losing that NewsNation look.”

Keeping the story moving.

Today, the lion’s share of NewsNation’s social content — from daily news promos to breaking updates — is created in Adobe Express.

The shift was immediate. NewsNation now produces 50 to 75 social assets a day for an audience of more than 5 million followers across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. What once required hours of designer involvement now takes producers minutes.

“Before, if a digital producer needed a change to a graphic, it had to come back to design for edits. That created a stopgap in the workflow,” Esposito says. “Now, with Adobe Express, it’s quick. We’re talking minutes, not hours.”

The shift has also created new momentum across teams. Adobe Express templates have become the connective tissue between departments, linking design, digital, and production into a single workflow.

“We’re collaborating more closely than ever,” Cowin says. “Design sets the standard, but producers keep the story moving. It’s made our digital team more responsive and creative. We used to have a long queue of requests. Now digital producers are updating graphics in real time, sometimes right before the show happens.”

Speed with standards.

The gains went beyond speed. By embedding brand standards and reusable templates into Adobe Express, NewsNation established a scalable model that ensures accuracy and consistency across all channels. Character limits prevent overflow, locked image frames preserve composition, and brand colors stay true, ensuring every visual meets the same design standards that define NewsNation’s reporting.

“Adobe Express has become the bridge between our design, editorial, social media, and digital teams,” says Esposito. “It lets us keep creative control while empowering more people to tell stories visually.”

Because brand safety and accuracy are non-negotiable, NewsNation builds strict controls into every Adobe Express template — from character limits to locked frames and approved color palettes. Producers get freedom to publish quickly, while designers maintain governance.

Cowin says the change has also strengthened creative culture across NewsNation. “People who never opened Photoshop before are now designing in Adobe Express,” she explains. “That curiosity and experimentation have brought new energy to the team.”

Scaling the model.

As Nexstar expands its use of Adobe Express, the network is building a more connected content supply chain — one where creation, collaboration, and publishing flow through the same platform. Designers build assets once in Adobe Creative Cloud, then convert them into reusable templates. Other news and media teams are taking note, and digital producers are testing new ways to merge video, graphics, and social storytelling within the same platform.

For Esposito and Inthavong, the focus is now on scaling what works and exploring how Adobe’s AI-powered tools can further enhance creativity and efficiency.

The goal is to create a fully connected creative ecosystem that links Adobe Express with Creative Cloud tools, such as Photoshop and After Effects, allowing design teams to build assets once and convert them into producer-ready templates that preserve brand standards and creative integrity.

Together, these advances show that speed and quality go hand in hand as outcomes of smart, connected systems built for a national news organization's design workflow.

With this momentum, NewsNation isn’t just keeping up with the news cycle — it’s rewriting what fast, accurate visual storytelling looks like.

Pierre Tapia is Head of B2B Product Marketing for Adobe Express, bringing over a decade of experience in B2B software. With a deep passion for empowering teams through technology, Pierre is dedicated to helping organizations reclaim their creative power and drive impact in their industries.

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