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April 28, 2008

The WB Will Not Be Televised

"The next great network will not be televised."

With this, and other grandiose pronouncements, Warner Bros. Television Group unveiled two major new broadband sites, a couple of virtual worlds, and named some of the advertisers that will support the launch.

The WB.com, which comes out of beta in August, will be an online video-on-demand network featuring both library content and original Web productions. "We're in the digital storytelling business," noted Warner Bros. TV Group President Bruce Rosenblum, "and making a significant investment in our digital initiatives."

The company was more tight-lipped about advertising opportunities, but did reveal initial sponsors include Mattell, McDonald's and Johnson & Johnson.

In addition to distrubution partners including Comcast, AOL, Fancast.com, and some mobile carriers, WB created an application on Facebook. All content on the WB site will be available for viewing from within Facebook, and vice-versa: users can peruse Facebook from inside The WB.com.

KidsWB.com is the juvenile version of WB content on the Web. Integrated within the platform are two virtual worlds: Warner Zone, featuring characters from WBs extensive cartoon library, and DC Hero Zone, where Batman and his ilk can be encountered. It goes live sometime next month.

It's interesting to note that "mix, mash, share" is a motto. Give Tweetybird a mohawk, turn the Tasmanian Devil into a tutu-wearing avatar - WB doesn't care. That's massive, considering the proprietary attitude entertainment conglomerates have traditionally taken toward the sanctity of their characters. On the adult site, users will be encourage to re-mix episodes of, say, "Friends," and share them with their own friends.

Are you listening, Mouse?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 28, 2008

About CEO Scott Meyer Steps Down; Nisenholtz and McCoy to Fill In

Scott Meyer will depart About.com and The New York Times Co. next week after an eight year odyssey with the company. "After discussions with Martin [Nisenholtz, digital chief], we've agreed that I'll be stepping down from my position as President & CEO of the About Group and leaving the Times Company," Meyer wrote in a note to staff. Nisenholtz and Chief Digital Architect Ron McCoy will manage the group until a replacement CEO is named. A spokesperson said the search for Meyer's successor will include both internal and external candidates.

"I am incredibly proud of all that we have accomplished together as a team at About. The About Group is in a very strong position," said Meyer's memo. "I will miss not being a part of About's future, but I'm confident that the Group's best days are ahead."

Meyer led About for three years. PaidContent.org first reported the departure late Wednesday.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 29, 2008

VC Firms' Idea on Next Big Thing

Start-up media companies are not lacking for funding these days. Over the past few days, Rubicon Project and Quantcast announced funding on the ad side of start-ups, and plenty of others are in line to receive venture capital investments.

At AlwaysOn's OnMedia in New York this morning a handful of venture capitalists got together to discuss what they look for when considering funding, and how they view brand advertisers in the picture.

Criteria for being selected for funding varies, with a few universal qualities resonating on the rader of the VC community. "You have to look in areas where there is a huge amount of disruption," said Eric Hippeau, managing director of Softbank Capital.

Jonathan Miller, co-founder of Velocity Investment Group said his firm looks for "multi-platform properties. Things that can start online and move to other media." An example of multi-platform property was only a few seats down on the panel. Tim Draper, founder and MD of Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson, is not only the VC behind the online and Nickelodeon series "The Naked Brothers Band" he plays the Principal Schmoke" on the show. The property originated and lives online, yet it's successful on cable.

There was a consensus that digital is still very much in development. "I don't think we've seen the real usage patterns emerge, we're starting to. It's still the very early days of seeing the true impact of stuff," said Drew Lipsher, partner at Greycroft Partners.

Emerging online models, according to Miller, follow the early days of television. "TV was no different than Internet today, TV shows started with sponsors. [The Internet} is in that interesting realm right now."

Digital media "Is something brand advertisers can get their hands on," said Miller. "There's $250 billion in brand advertising sitting in traditional media right now that over the next decade is going to have to find a place online."

To echo the point and realize what many digital folks have learned, "A dollar of analog money translates to pennies of digital money," said Hippeau.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2007

Marvel Opens its Comic Vaults for Online Reading

Marvel Comics, and the comic book industry in general, has a problem. The next generation of potential comic book readers, the kids and pre-teens, aren't reading their books, because they're too busy doing stuff online! The average age of consumers willing to actually pick up a paper comic book has been increasingly skewing older, as the younger generation comes to know heroes like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four from other mediums, like film or games.

So what's Marvel's answer to how to expose new readers to its classic comic characters and their print books? They're putting them online. As mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article, Marvel Entertainment is putting large numbers of issues from its comic vault online. The company is sharing not only newly released titles, like Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run, but also the classic first issue runs of Spider-Man, The Avengers, Uncanny X-Men and others. It's charging a subscription to access the comics, ranging from $4.99 a month for a year's subscription, to $9.99 on a month to month basis.

Marvel is clearly willing to experiment with reaching out to viewers, and advertisers, in new ways to keep its readership fresh. Last month it signed a deal with advertising rep company Gorilla Nation to start experiment with sponsorship opportunities (although I checked and Gorilla Nation admitted it hadn't had a hand in this promotional event).

As media changes it's interesting to see how some companies are trying to use the new to reach back to the old. And it should also be interesting to see what results this online sharing of classic content garners Marvel in the long run.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 5, 2007

TheStreet Expands Network with Acquisition

Financial news publisher TheStreet.com has purchased Bankers Financial Products Corp. for around $25 million. Bankers puts out sites including bank-rate finder BankingMyWay and RateWatch. The deal should help TheStreet attract more advertisers by extending its reach beyond its flagship domain.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 30, 2007

Esurance and Cisco Among Hulu Beta Advertisers

After testing the new Hulu video site from NewsCorp and NBC Universal, launched in beta today, we’ve experienced some smooth streaming, and some video that sputters at best.

As for the ads, there’s a variety of formats already running from advertisers like Cisco, Esurance and Crest. For instance, 5 quickie spots from Esurance appeared intermittently throughout an episode of NBC’s “Heroes.” Most of the serial-style ads were about 5 seconds each, while the second was about 20 seconds. The same types of spots ran during another Heroes episode for Cisco.

A more standard video ad format was seen when viewing a clip from NBC’s “Journeyman” on MSN, one of Hulu’s many distribution partners. Before that clip played, a pre-roll spot for Crest Whitestrips was served alongside a banner for the same advertiser.

Expect to see lots of different formats in Hulu video, from overlays during short-form content that play only when users initiate them to sponsored banners, interstitials and end plates displaying advertiser logos after content plays. Viewers watching longer-form full-length episodes and movies from MGM will see more ads. However, while shows on TV feature 8 minutes of ads along with 22 minutes of programming, Hulu video of the same shows will feature 2 minutes of ads. The video will maintain the natural ad breaks of the TV shows.

Hulu won’t say much about how ads are targeted yet, but it’s probably just contextual at this point.

In conjunction with the launch, Hulu announced top execs running the project. The company had already announced its hire of Amazon alum Jason Kilar as CEO in June, noting a focus on customer experience. The top ad sales head honcho is Jean-Paul Colaco, SVP of advertising; Colaco was most recently SVP of business development at Walt Disney Company.

Other newly–announced execs include SVP and CFO Tom Fueling, formerly of Ascent Media and ARTISTdirect; and SVP of Content Acquisition and Distribution Andy Forssell, previously from Siebel Systems where he ran Oracle’s CRMOn Demand Hosting Operations. User-experience man Eric Feng was named CTO and SVP of audience for Hulu; Feng founded Mojiti, an online video operation acquired by Hulu in September.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 23, 2007

No Ad Revenue Lost from NBC Pulling YouTube Clips

There are lots of stories out there today about NBC Universal hoisting its promo clips off YouTube.

A couple important points to note as confirmed with ClickZ by an NBC spokesperson:
1. These were regularly rotating short clips intended to promote upcoming NBC shows.
2. They were removed to support the launch of Hulu, the NBC/NewsCorp site and distribution play, expected to go live by the end of the month.
3. "THERE WAS NO ADVERTISING" associated with the NBC Universal content on YouTube, according to the NBC spokesperson. Sure, NBC got marketing benefits out of the deal, but she stressed, "We didn't make money from this."

NBC and YouTube introduced the promo partnership last June, a rapprochement following a skirmish prompted by YouTube's hosting of user-uploaded clips of SNL's "Lazy Sunday."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 23, 2007

Angie's Do-Not-Call List

"Hi. This is Angies List. First, we'd like to thank you for being a member. Now, please post more content on our site."

That, in essence, was the middle-of-the workday call I just got at my desk from an Angie's List representative. It took a minute or two to sort out the fact he wasn't pitching a story (we are, of course on their press list). Rather, the purpose of the call was to ask me as a member to think back on any contractors or services I'd recently used and to urge me to post reviews of those businesses on the site.

This raises several questions, none of them particularly favorable to the site. Angie's list is advertising heavily for members in New York tri-state area offline media. The fact they're calling, rather than sending e-mail reminders, to boost content reeks of a bit of desperation. Are they selling paid subs to peple hoping to use the reference portion of the site without contributing to its content -- hence, is the social nature of the list failing to meet expectations?

Another reason the choice of channel is unwise is because maany people find phone calls disruptive, particularly at work. This prompted me to visit the site for the first time in about a year, where I discovered my free membership expires in a couple of weeks. I can re-up as a paid subscriber -- but now the company has both annoyed me and called into questions the adequacy of their offering. The paid subscription option is off the table.

Finally, my need for Angie's List is over. My project is done. No new ones are on the horizon.

If Angie's list needs content as badly as it appears they do, there are far better ways to encourage it. They could run contests offering prizes for the most reviews, or the best reviews (this could be a writing contest), or the best member advice/recommendations.

Angie has plenty of competition in both the off- and online world. My hunch after this phone call is, they're feeling it.

Update: Angie's list got in touch to say that annual calls are, in fact part of their customer outreach. The company provided the following breakdown (n their words):

- E-mails, on average, twice a month (one with the electronic version of the magazine; another with a checklist or helpful tips)
- Monthly magazine – always includes a promotional spot (s) about the importance of submitting reports
- Pssst – a lighter version of the magazine mailed out monthly (this is a new publication that’s in only 4 markets right now but will eventually be in all)
- Annual and monthly award we call List Feeder that rewards the members who has submitted the most reports
- E-mail message each time a member searches for a service provider but doesn’t submit a report
- An annual report drive that includes prizes and incentives to those members who submit the most reports. This is promoted on the Web, via e-mails and in the magazine
- Phone calls once a year (on average) to remind members of the importance of submitting reports.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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