SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

April 20, 2007

Addressing the Rights Holders

At the recent SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association) conference, many traditional publishers heard Yahoo! appeal directly to their interests. Yahoo's Scott Moore explained that more than 80-90% of their content comes from licensing. He touted visitor access to great branded content, and the benefits for publishers.

While Moore was aiming to please, there's no mistaking that Yahoo competes with publishers. Yahoo's top priority is to improve site engagement, by encouraging visitors to stick around before heading to publisher sites and resources. Yahoo can draw on some of its own editorial and user-generated functionality too.

By contrast, these SIIA publishers are off-line powerhouses who often struggle to attract their own site visitors. They have cut licensing deals with Yahoo (and others) to expose their content elsewhere, via these portals.

Yahoo's success with social tools creates a wider gap that's not going to close soon. John Blossom stated this best: “The ability to aggregate both content and communities gives [Yahoo] a powerful edge over most traditional media brands.”

Since Yahoo! has long-standing deals with many SIIA-member companies, Moore seemed to know a lot of people he addressed. Thus I'm not sure why he spent time touting Yahoo's content and capabilities, in a way that was making publishers green with envy. Is this how you treat your friends?

Posted by at 3:24 AM | Permalink

March 6, 2006

More Evidence Of Yahoo's Braun and Yahoo Media Group Underperforming?

Yahoo lowers expectations for original content from Reuters reports that Yahoo "wants to lower expectations for how much original programming it will produce as part of its online information and entertainment offerings."

Is this just one more sign that Yahoo Media Group head Lloyd Braun is out the door, or is Yahoo going to play a Google move and hit us with something big when expectations are low?

Last month we reported in Do or Die for Yahoo's Braun about how Braun has been reportedly under a lot of pressure to make something of the media group at Yahoo.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:30 AM | Permalink

February 21, 2006

Do or Die for Yahoo's Braun?

Stefanie Olsen of News.com reports that the Head of Yahoo! Media Group, Lloyd Braun has been under a lot of heat to help Yahoo's Media Group compete. Stefanie Olsen says since Braun's hire in November 2004, he has not been able to "adapt his Hollywood know-how to the digital world." Olsen says, "Yahoo's plan to become a major Internet content player is treading water." Some believe this is do or die time for Braun.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:42 AM | Permalink

February 2, 2006

Yahoo News Not Competing With Content Owners; Personalization, Better Recommendations May Come

Greg Linden points to the Budde Outlines Yahoo News Future article at MediaPost, where Yahoo News general manager Neil Budde reassures content owners that Yahoo News doesn't want to compete with them with its own original news content. Um, then why does Yahoo have it at all? Budde says Yahoo's own content will only be in areas underreported by the mainstream media. He also covers plans to create personalized news pages and the possibility of a better recommendation service, perhaps more Digg like in nature.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:17 PM | Permalink

January 16, 2006

WSJ: More Reality TV Type Programming Might Be Coming to Yahoo

The Wall Street Journal's Kevin Delaney and Brooks Barnes article (subscription not required): Yahoo Hopes to Make Network Flop a Net Hit, takes a look at how Y has plans (it's not official yet) to take a reality show "concept" that was "abandoned" by ABC Television and produce it for a web audience.

The program is named "The Runner."

The "Runner" venture -- which focuses on the pursuit of a fugitive traveling between secret locations around the U.S. -- comes amid high expectations for Yahoo's efforts to reinvent the entertainment that people consume online and concerns that its Media Group has broken little new ground since Lloyd Braun took over the unit in November 2004. For this project, the company is working on a cross between a narrative video production and an online game: Consumers will be able to view regularly updated video clips of roughly three to five minutes in length through Yahoo's site and try to solve online puzzles about the fugitive's real-world location.

Lloyd Braun, head of the Yahoo Media Group, was previously a backer of the show when he was chairman of ABC Television Entertainment Group.

The article adds that the concept for "The Runner" was created by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck who have been working with Yahoo for about six months to bring the program to Yahoo. You'll also learn that reality show guru Mark Burnett is also involved in the project.

Six months ago, Yahoo paid to option the concept and recruited Mr. Burnett, they say. Since then, the involved parties have been working on how to adapt "The Runner" to the Web and integrate it with Yahoo's existing offerings, such as instant messaging, online maps and search. They believe they have worked out the biggest logistical and insurance issues.

Delaney and Barnes report that Burnett is also working with AOL on other "unannonuced" Internet projects.

It sounds like we might be seeing the web as the future home to reality shows. Oh joy! ;-)

Finally, the article includes a chart of some of the Yahoo Media Group 2005 initiatives like Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone and the stream of Howard Stern's last terrestrial radio broadcast before going to Sirius satellite radio.

If reality programming and Yahoo sound familiar they should. About a month ago Danny posted about plans for Yahoo's "Wow House" reality program.

Also, in June 2005 I blogged about Yahoo giving new life to a music program, Pepsi Smash, that did not do well on over-the-air television using on-demand video streams.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:16 PM | Permalink

December 14, 2005

Yahoo Plans Reality TV Show: "Wow House"

Continuing to believe that to be a media company, you've got to own your own original media, Yahoo's planning a reality TV show. Yahoo! Wows MPG Summit, Reveals Plans For Reality Show from MediaPost covers "Wow House," where two families get $10,000 to upgrade their homes. Hmm -- why do I suspect they'll do a lot of their shopping online aided by Yahoo Search and Yahoo Shopping?

Perhaps Wow House will work better for Yahoo than their famed original news content with Kevin Sites. Yahoo's Original News Off To Slow Start covers how Yahoo's "Kevin Sites In The Hot Zone" apparently hasn't been bringing in truckloads of readers and has relatively few ads.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:02 AM | Permalink

November 22, 2005

Google and Yahoo talking to CBS About a "Slew" of Video Opportunities

Although this Reuters article is headlined: CBS says in talks with Google for video search, it also points out that CBS has also been talking with Yahoo about video search and on-demand video.

“We’re talking to them about a whole slew of things including video-on-demand, including video search,” [CBS chairman Leslie] Moonves told Reuters in an interview regarding Google, ahead of Reuters’s Media and Advertising Summit next week...CBS’s discussions have not been restricted to Google and have also included talks with Yahoo, although deals with none of them have yet been struck.

It's worth noting that the recent availability of the premiere episode of "What About Chris" on Google Video came via a deal with UPN. This network is owned by the parent of CBS, Viacom.

At the moment, multimedia engines like BlinkxTV make some news content from CBS available. Other multimedia engines ncluding AOL Video Search also offers programming (clips, previews, behind the scenes material) from HBO, CNN, and others. HBO, CNN, and AOL are all owned by Time Warner.

Postscript: Actually, CBS already has a video content deal with Yahoo for news content It was announced in May when Yahoo Video Search left beta.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:45 PM | Permalink

November 14, 2005

Yahoo Culture: Sunnyvale & Santa Monica

In Chris Gaither's LA Times (free, reg. required) article, Can Yahoo Sign On to Hollywood?, you'll read about the very different cultures at Yahoo's office in Santa Monica (aka Hollywood) versus their Yahoo HQ in Sunnyvale (aka Silicon Valley).

But as Yahoo strives to enter the league of Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc. and other media giants, success hinges on its ability to merge two inherently different cultures: the brash, flashy ethos of entertainment executives and the rumpled, brainiac realm of computer nerds.

In the year since the company consolidated its Santa Monica office and began hiring a slew of former Hollywood executives bent on "convergence," Yahoo's leaders have sought to downplay the tensions. But the union has sometimes been rocky.

In Sunnyvale, it's "a cubicle society," said a person close to Yahoo, referring to the willingness of people at all levels to work in cramped workstations. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from Yahoo, this person said the Santa Monica office, by contrast, was about " 'How big is my office? Where is my parking spot? You report to me. I don't need to talk to you.' It's very much the studio hierarchy mentality."

Btw, the article also includes a quote from Senior VP of Search and Marketplace, Jeff Weiner on just what kind of company Yahoo is: "We're often asked, 'Is Yahoo a media company or a tech company?' said Jeff Weiner, a Yahoo senior vice president and former Warner Bros. executive who runs the search and marketplace groups. "The answer to that is: 'We're both. We're a media business that is technology driven.' "

Also on Search: Consequently, search has become a big part of Yahoo's media strategy ? it's the launch pad for many people to find video, music and websites ? and a big revenue generator. Yahoo is locked in a battle with Google to persuade movie studios and television companies to release their material to search engines ? one arena in which Yahoo's show-business connections are supposed to pay off.

A very interesting read.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:49 PM | Permalink

October 31, 2005

The Yahoo Media Content Beat: Harry Potter Exclusive Video Clip and New Content from "The Week"

A couple of quick items from the Yahoo media content beat.

First, Yahoo is the exclusive home of a new video clip from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film.

Second, The Week will produce, "a daily roundup of print and online business news" for Yahoo Finance, according to Crain's NY Business.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:20 PM | Permalink

September 26, 2005

More On Yahoo & Its Own Programming

It's Not TV, It's Yahoo from the New York Times is another look at Yahoo's moves to provide its own programming. The opening anecdote is key. Yahoo media chief Lloyd Braun "fumed" that Yahoo News was only offering "a white page filled with links to other sites on the web" during the troubled Discovery space shuttle mission rather than something original of its own.

I wrote before of the challenge this type of approach poses to Yahoo. Create your own programming, and people may not trust you're going to point them elsewhere. Indeed, that type of pointing IS programming and worked to bring people to Google in droves back when search engines became portals and decided they needed to have "channels" and their own content.

I don't know which way it will pan out, of course. Soon after Braun came aboard and talked about Yahoo's vertical areas as "channels," I wasn't impressed that he didn't seem to know the past history with search of that metaphor. But the closing quote in today's New York Times article suggests he does see the difficult balancing act:

"People want the freedom to do exactly what they want to do," he said. "But they also like to be programmed to and reminded of the different things that exist. Yahoo is in a position to do both of those."

I can certainly agree with this. There are definitely times when going beyond the algorithmic organization of information, some human programming, is helpful.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:52 AM | Permalink

September 13, 2005

Yahoo Hires Journalist As Media Company Begins Producing Its Own Media

Chat From the War Zone from the Los Angeles Times looks at Yahoo's recent hiring of journalist Kevin Sites and how it marks a move by the media company into actually producing more of its own media, rather than partnering with other players. Smart move or not? To me, at a time when Google is showing weakness as being off target from search, Yahoo expending resources and time for an even more non-search effort like this might be a weakness, rather than a strength.

Moreover, it just feels like a conflict. Is your job to help organize information or produce your own information? If it's producing your own, then how and when do you decide to show information from others. Will Yahoo News eventually be content produced by Yahoo's own reporters? Should it be that way? Will it be more a blend, where Yahoo has its own staff supplemented by "web/wire" results in the way newspapers and other news organizations operate?

I don't know the answers, but the further both companies get into the non-search waters, the further I shake my head in disbelief that maybe we really are back in 1998 and maybe we really could see a "new Google" walk in with a pure search focus and grab some audience share.

For some past reading on this subject, see Not Just A Search Engine: 2005 Edition and Return To The Sad Days Of More Than A Search Engine?.

Want to comment or discuss? Visit our Search Engine Watch Forums.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:26 AM | Permalink

July 11, 2005

National Public Radio Reports on Yahoo's Entertainment Play

NPR's Morning Edition program ran a six minute report today focusing on where Yahoo has been and where the company is headed, specifically in the world of media and entertainment.

You'll hear comments from:

  • Terry Semel
  • Jerry Yang
  • Rob Hayes, a senior vp at Showtime
  • Paul Saffo, Director, Institute for the Future

Saffo says, "The cell phone will give us a new form of video experience and I bet Yahoo is in there first."

You can listen to the report here.

Two quick comments of my own: + A minor gripe. The report says that Yahoo has had more of a human touch (say Yahoo News) vs. Google's algorithmic search engine. However, no mention that Yahoo also offers an algorithmic search engine as one of their many services. ---- ---- + At about 1:40 seconds into the story, the reporter mentions that Yahoo's homepage looks nothing like Google's. It's cluttered, Sydell says. Cluttered and busy is something that I hear all of the time as a reason people don't use Yahoo as a web search tool. Yet, Yahoo does offer an alternative. As I said last week, they need to do more to promote their uncluttered "clean" interface as a customizable alternative to the main Yahoo home page.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:31 PM | Permalink

May 4, 2005

Burnett Productions to Yahoo: Your're REhired

Word that Yahoo has extended its deal Mark Burnett Productions, the producer of "The Apprentice," to produce the official site for the program. Additionally, Yahoo will also produce the official site for a new version of "The Apprentice" starring Martha Stewart.

The extension will include versions of "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump, as well as the highly anticipated "The Apprentice" with Martha Stewart. The agreement also allows for future versions of "The Apprentice" following the 2005-2006 television season. The agreement expands on the successful alliance between Mark Burnett Productions and Yahoo! that produced the official sites for the last two cycles of "The Apprentice" and the premiere season of "The Contender."

More about the Burnett/Yahoo relationship in this blog post from January.

Posted by Gary Price at 9:28 AM | Permalink

April 27, 2005

Google Interviews, Yahoo and Blinkx Hire

Three search engine personnel stories in the news today. Here's a roundup.

+ Stefanie Olsen reports that Google is interviewing a former U.S. State Department employee, Dan Senor, to head Google's marketing team. Recently you might have seen Senor on TV at press conferences while he served as Advisor to the U.S. Presidential Envoy in Iraq. Senor is interviewing for the position that Cindy McCaffery left last year. Google isn't commenting.

+ Yahoo has hired Shawn Hardin as vice-president of content development. Hardin comes to Yahoo from AOL where he was senior vp of broadband. Before that he worked at several studios and was the head of NBC Internet. He'll be based at the Yahoo Media Division hq in Santa Monica, California.

+ Blinkx, the provider of both contextual search and video search technology, has hired Jonathan Gregg as Vice President, Business Development for the U.S. Gregg comes from Yahoo where he served as Manager of Global Alliances.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:17 AM | Permalink

April 4, 2005

More On Yahoo's Media Group & Yahoo Wins MSN Content Exec

Yahoo's plans to be a player in providing access to various types of entertainment content is discssed in the AP article: Yahoo raises eyebrows with Hollywood push.

Yahoo says it is in the earliest stages of developing its entertainment strategy and therefore declined to make an executive available to discuss it with The Associated Press. But the company has made it clear that one of [Lloyd] Braun?s [Head of Yahoo Media Group] mandates is to find new ways for Yahoo?s music, games, news, sports, kids and other divisions to draw more visitors.

Moving content off the computer onto cell phones, portable media players and other devices is likely a key goal, many in the industry believe.

On a related note, ClickZ reports in Yahoo! Poaches MSN Content Exec that Scott Moore is leaving his post as MSN's general manager of programming to become the VP of content operations with Yahoo's Media Group.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:41 PM | Permalink

March 21, 2005

Yahoo Media Group Hiring

We've written of Yahoo's new Yahoo Media Group before. From News.com, Yahoo's SoCal plans take shape, some brief details of openings for news editors, finance content partners and others.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:33 PM | Permalink

February 16, 2005

Yahoo! Gets Fat

It's now clear why Robert Greenblatt, president of entertainment at Showtime, told reporters

Overture's HQ is also in the LA area. A move from Pasadena to Burbank is likely sometime in the next year.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:37 PM | Permalink

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