So keep an eye on Keane’s newest job: He’s going to be president at Sharethrough, a startup that’s trying to let advertisers buy “native ads” at scale on multiple sites.

Native advertising may be the media industry’s most popular buzzword of the moment. In short, it’s an updated version of the old-fashioned advertorials you used to see in magazines and newspapers, or on old-timey radio and TV shows like “Texaco Star Theater”: Content solely underwritten by advertisers that’s supposed to look and act like “real” content. Perhaps you’ll enjoy it so much you’ll share it with your friends.

The model has picked up currency again as advertisers conclude that conventional banner ads and other techniques aren’t registering, and as content-makers try to fight declining ad rates. Two big issues: Most native ads are lousy, and they usually have to be created on a bespoke basis, one website at a time.

Keane, who has also put in time at CBS and Google, says his new company can solve these problems; right now their approach is to function primarily as a video ad network, distributing ad-sponsored clips on lots of different websites.

I’m not sure how they’ll grapple with native ads that aren’t videos, but for now they seem to have some traction. Last year, they sold $18 million worth of ads/content, and are looking to do $40 million this year.

Sharethrough CEO Dan Greenberg, who started the company when he was at Stanford, will stay on. He has raised $11 million in the last couple years, and has 85 employees in three cities.

Luke Beatty, the founder of Associated Content, has been named managing director of TechStars’ Boulder, Colo., program.

Beatty, who had been an entrepreneur in residence at the start-up accelerator, had previously been a top-level content exec at Yahoo before leaving in April. The Associated Content unit had been bought by the Silicon Valley Internet giant in 2008 for $90 million.

As described on its Web site, the organization takes only 10 companies per city: “TechStars is a mentorship-driven seed stage investment program. We run a three month long program in Boston (MA), Boulder (CO), Cloud (San Antonio, TX), New York City (NY), and Seattle (WA) once each year … These companies get $18,000 in seed funding. In addition, companies accepted into the program are offered a $100,000 convertible debt note by a group of prominent VCs immediately upon acceptance into TechStars.”

“I really believe in the TechStars community-driven model and the viability of the start-up scene in Colorado,” said Beatty. “It is my good fortune to be able to work with the diverse group of successful entrepreneurs that TechStars supports — both existing and prospective.”

Added TechStars CEO David Cohen: “Luke has been a mentor here at TechStars for some time. Not only is he an amazing entrepreneur, but he’s the kind of person that digs in and goes deep. It’s obvious that he genuinely loves working with start-ups, and that makes him a natural fit here at TechStars.”

In yet another high-level executive departure, top-level content exec Luke Beatty, the founder of the Associated Content unit that Yahoo bought several years ago for $90 million, is departing, according to sources.

Beatty’s move comes as the Silicon Valley Internet giant is preparing large-scale layoffs and a massive restructuring, which several sources said will begin mid-week.

It’s another blow for the company, given the entrepreneurial Beatty was the kind of exec that Yahoo desperately needs to keep if its media aspirations are to remain innovative.

While Associated Content — now called the Yahoo Contributor Network — has been integrated into the media offerings at Yahoo, other upcoming cuts in Beatty’s areas of management could be decimating.

The changes are due to a new initiative from new CEO Scott Thompson to turn Yahoo around after years of lackluster performance. The situation has been tense at the iconic company, made worse by an increasingly nasty proxy fight that is also looming.

Tonight, Demand Media–in reaction to a new study showing that its flagship eHow site had now gotten much more negatively impacted by Google’s rejiggering of its search algorithm than previously–released a statement and blog post about the tempest.

In it, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company reaffirmed its outlook for fiscal year 2011, noting, in part:

“Certain third parties that have published reports attempting to estimate the effect of recent search engine algorithm changes made by Google on traffic to the Company’s owned and operated websites have significantly overstated the negative impact of those changes on traffic to eHow.com, as compared to the Company’s directly measured internal data.”

The company, though, declined to give specific details about the impact of Google’s attempt to clean up its search results by tweaking its algorithms to cut out poorly made material from so-called “content farms.”

While others had apparently been initially impacted by Google’s first foray, such as Yahoo’s Associated Content unit, Demand had not been.

That is, until a recent Sistrix poll (see chart below), showing eHow has now been hurt badly by even more Google search changes, codenamed Panda.

While acknowledging a decline in search traffic on eHow from the Google changes, Demand said the Sistrix data was way off.

In a blog post, Larry Fitzgibbon, Demand’s EVP of Media and Operations, wrote, in part:

“However, recent third-party reports attempting to estimate the impact to our search driven traffic, including one projecting a 2/3rds decline in eHow.com traffic, are so significantly overstated that we decided to comment.”

When Google began making changes to its search formula, Demand CEO Richard Rosenblatt told MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka in an interview that its relationship with Google was all sunshine and roses.

When asked how its relationship with Google was, Rosenblatt said:

“This is why our partnership with Google makes sense. 1) We help them fill the gaps in their index, where they don’t have quality content. 2) We’re the largest supplier of all video to YouTube, over two billion views and 3) we’re a large AdSense partner. So our relationship is synergistic, and it’s a great partnership. And it’s a partnership that we’re excited to continue to expand.”

It will be interesting to see how he feels now.

Here are both Demand’s official press release and blog below:

Demand Media Reaffirms Outlook for Fiscal Year 2011

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Apr 18, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE)

Demand Media, Inc. (NYSE: DMD), a leading content and social media company, announced today that it is reaffirming its financial outlook for fiscal year 2011 that it previously provided on February 22, 2011.

Certain third parties that have published reports attempting to estimate the effect of recent search engine algorithm changes made by Google on traffic to the Company’s owned and operated websites have significantly overstated the negative impact of those changes on traffic to eHow.com, as compared to the Company’s directly measured internal data. Recent search engine algorithm changes have negatively impacted search driven traffic to some of our websites, including eHow.com, resulting in moderately lower year-to-date page view growth for the Company’s owned and operated Content & Media properties compared to page view growth rates before the algorithm changes. Nevertheless, the Company currently expects that its year-over-year page view growth across its owned and operated Content & Media properties in the second quarter of 2011 will be comparable to, or greater than, the year-over-year page view growth achieved in the second quarter of 2010.

As previously announced, the Company will report its first quarter 2011 financial results on May 5, 2011. The Company will host a conference call to discuss the results at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 p.m. Pacific Time). A live webcast of the conference call will also be available and can be accessed within the investor relations section of Demand Media’s corporate website at ir.demandmedia.com.

Another Statement About Search Engine Algorithm Changes

Posted by larry fitzgibbon at 4/17/2011 10:05 PM PDT

It’s hard to imagine a company more focused on the connection between consumers and content than Demand Media. That point of connection gives us the opportunity to inform, engage and serve the consumer. And it’s where trusted relationships start. So, how our content reaches the consumer–whether it’s through direct visits, social media referrals, apps or search–continues to be top of mind with everyone at the company. Consumers are connecting with more content than ever before as social media and mobile access have emerged to play huge roles that didn’t even exist just a few years ago. And search engines, of course, continue to play an integral part in content discovery and have been hard at work improving their products to create the best consumer experiences possible.

As I discussed on my last blog post, Google recently made significant search algorithm changes in an update dubbed Panda that has rolled out in various capacities from late February thru mid-April. With respect to Panda’s mid-April update, some of our properties saw Google search referrals move up while other properties, including our largest property eHow.com, saw these referrals go down.

As I said in my prior post, we generally do not comment or speculate on changes by major search engines, as these changes can happen nearly daily. However, recent third-party reports attempting to estimate the impact to our search driven traffic, including one projecting a 2/3rds decline in eHow.com traffic, are so significantly overstated that we decided to comment. As discussed in our press release issued today, we currently expect that in Q2 2011 our owned and operated Content & Media properties will generate year-over-year page view growth comparable to or greater than the year-over-year page view growth reported for Q2 2010. We have also reaffirmed our calendar year 2011 financial guidance in this press release.

Demand Media has a myriad of impactful sites and many sources of traffic. We are encouraged that the investments we’ve been making in site experience and content quality are making an impact with our consumers. Organic growth in visits from non-search sources to eHow continue to grow rapidly and Cracked.com is now the most visited humor site on the Internet with the majority of its page views coming from direct visits. Improvements have been registered from eHow’s recent redesign and the introduction of new video series leading to significant growth in Facebook likes. Our brand advertisers have also reported encouraging results with their intent-targeted campaigns. Rest assured, just as we have been innovators in building one of the largest online audiences, we are applying that same rigor and intensity to delivering a quality experience for consumers and advertisers.

As a disruptive digital media and technology company, we have been operating in a fast moving environment since the company’s founding five years ago. While change is frequent, one thing is certain–Demand Media is steadfast in our commitment to produce great outcomes for our consumers, advertisers and community of creative professionals. We’re in the trenches listening, learning, adapting and innovating–and we are very excited about the opportunity in front of us. We look forward to providing details on all of these topics and more in our previously announced conference call at 5:00pm (Eastern) May 5th, 2011 to discuss first quarter 2011 financial results.

Larry Fitzgibbon is Demand Media’s EVP of Media and Operations, and manages the company’s rapidly growing network of consumer properties.

Speaking on a panel at the Global Technology Symposium in Menlo Park on Friday, Yahoo’s Steven Mitzenmacher said the company had gone through a couple of years where acquisitions weren’t on the agenda.

“But we’ve come out now…guns blazing,” he said, adding that executives around the company “want to do more.” Yahoo made only a handful of buys over the last couple of years, including web content provider Associated Content for $100 million last May.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Start another digital media business!

Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer, who sold his company to AOL earlier his month, has his next project lined up: He’s a co-founder of Bedrocket Properties, a video studio/incubator.

Bedrocket plans on creating and investing in programming that could find a home on the Web or on traditional TV. But it’s really interested in all the new, content-hungry video outlets that sit somewhere between those two poles: Netflix, Apple and Google TV, Roku, mobile phones, tablets, etc.

“I think this is the next sweet spot,” Lerer says. “The distribution is all built out. It just needs to be filled with content. It’s absolutely identical to cable in the 80s.”

Joining Lerer are Brian Bedol, who built and sold two TV networks (Classic Sports Networks to Disney’s ESPN and College Sports Television to CBS), Patrick Keane, a former Google and CBS marketing executive who ran Associated Content for a year before selling it to Yahoo, and hedge fund manager Jim Pallotta.

Bedol will be Bedrocket’s CEO (his personal investment company is called Bedrock Ventures) and Keane will be president. Lerer will be chairman and says he “will be hands on for some period of time,” as he was in Huffington Post’s early years. He says Pallotta will be an “active investor.”

Bedol and Lerer aren’t ready to go into detail about their plans, other than that they intend to build slates of programming–you could call them “channels”, if you like–that they can sell to distributors. And that they likely won’t have programming in front of viewers until the end of the year. They won’t discuss the amount they’ve invested in Bedrocket.

But their basic premise makes sense: There’s a big–and growing–market for video, and it won’t be sated with TV reruns and dog-on-skateboard videos alone.

“We’re at the beginning of a new paradigm, and you’re going to see a generation of really valuable content properties come out of this,” Bedol says.

They’re not the first ones to think this, of course. But earlier incarnations of Web-only video studios have failed, in large part because Web advertising economics haven’t been able to support much in the way of new programming.

And networks like Keane’s former employer, who should be good at this stuff, haven’t done much more with new video beyond a few webisodes. That’s because they have a fundamental channel conflict: It’s hard for them to build up a real alternative to the broadcast and cable channels where they’re already making money.

But now Web ad dollars are getting big enough to support “real” programming–note that Google is out persuading Hollywood to build shows for YouTube. And subscription services like Netflix and Amazon are going to be in the market for new stuff to show their subscribers.

Lerer, who has been an active angel investor along with his son Ben, via their Lerer Ventures fund, still plans on raising a second fund this year. But he says BedRocket will be the startup that gets most of his time (Ben Lerer will also be working with Bedrocket in addition to Thrillist, his own newsletter startup).

“I know much more than I did 6 years ago,” he says. “I see this one much more clearly than I originally saw the Huffington Post. I think this one has a real business plan from day one.”

Last week, Yahoo’s advertising unit got the once-over from its new sales head Wayne Powers. And, this week, its new Audience unit head Mickie Rosen is making a series of executives moves.

First up, sources said that the current head of its powerful Yahoo News, Mark Walker, will be leaving for another another company and a new head of the news site is close to being hired.

Already hired is top Time Warner digital exec Ken Fuchs, who will now run Yahoo’s huge sports, games and entertainment sites. He ran all digital distribution at Time Inc. Digital, overseeing emerging platforms for more than two dozen Web properties. Before that, he also ran Sports Illustrated’s online site and, previous to that, worked in strategy and development for Fox Interactive Media.

And Associated Content head Luke Beatty will be adding a lot to his portfolio, now running the Americas region community and local businesses, including Flickr, Groups, Answers and hundreds of local sites.

Yahoo’s current local head Matt Idema, sources said, will likely be leaving the company.

Lastly, Erin McPherson will be running all of the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s much dispersed video offerings, branded and original entertainment, across the Americas region.

In related news, Matthew Rothenberg, product head at Flickr, said in a blog post that he was leaving the company.

Yahoo declined to comment on the moves.

Yahoo’s Luke Beatty said he is not worried.

“We welcome the change,” he insisted about Google taking aim last Friday at so-called “content farms,” producers of low-quality content that spam up the Web and the search giant’s results. “And we endorse what Google is doing 100 percent.”

That’s ironic, given among those allegedly hit hardest by changing of its famous algorithm–based on early, and perhaps questionable, surveys–is Yahoo’s Associated Content.

But, if true, and traffic at Associated Content–which the Silicon Valley Internet giant bought for $90 million last May–is indeed badly hurt, it’s obviously going to be a problem for Yahoo, which relies on advertising revenue as its core business.

A quick poll by Sistrix, a search engine optimization firm, using one million keywords before and after Google’s changes, showed that Associated Content’s “visibility index”– including keyword and ranking positions ranking and clickthrough rate–was down 93 percent.

So yesterday, Beatty, who founded Associated Content and now works at Yahoo, dialed up BoomTown to talk about what the Google shift will mean to Yahoo.

First off in the wide-ranging interview, he noted, “everything on the Web is changing all the time,” noting that Associated Content used to rely more on the now weakened Digg and RSS for its traffic and distribution.

“Obviously, that has changed and we have still managed to grow,” he said.

Beatty said it is still not clear that the new tweaks in search criteria at Google would mean for Associated Content’s offerings–coming from 400,000 contributors of all kinds.

“Our data will not be reconciled for weeks…but some will be up and some will be down,” he said, adding the overall, “I suspect it will be down, although it’s not accurate by any means in the numbers released so far, since there is no way you can know this early.”

Still, it’s obvious that Google’s latest move has not been not good for Associated Content, although Beatty noted that the Silicon Valley search king is no longer the main source of traffic for Associated Content material.

Instead, that would be the owned-and-operated sites of Yahoo, most of all, and–increasingly–social networking sites such as Facebook.

“When we sold the company, we know that sites of Yahoo itself would be the biggest driver of our growth and that was the plan,” said Beatty. “And, though smaller, social means of distribution are clearly the way people are now finding our content.”

In an email later, Beatty underscored this point:

“Search traffic is not our focus within Yahoo–it hasn’t been for 10
months…traffic sources have changed endlessly over that last six years…search is one, albeit an important one and clearly, [but] now it too is changing and we see the future of our content distribution coming from O&O properties and social networks, as much as anything.”

Still, Beatty said Associated Content will adapt as long as Google does not make its tweaks on a network basis and rather than on a site basis. (Interestingly, that would presumably include Google’s own–and often spammish–Blogger property, which is fueled by its powerful AdSense engine.)

“It appears that changes have been made on an asset-by-asset basis
is good–networkwide cramdown would be inappropriate and uneducated,” he said.

Still, the best way to fight the Google initiative is by delivering higher quality content, which Beatty said was being done at the company via a series of ongoing measures to improve overall submissions.

Those include a Yahoo style guide for content creators, a two-tiered human editor review process, analytical analysis, a featured contributor program and, interesting, an online tutorial process called the Yahoo Contributor Network.

It’s not exactly Harvard University, of course, but Beatty said there is more to come.

“We are committed to supporting and helping our contributors navigate through this and every other change in the crowdsourced content economy,” he said. “We want the best article to get more traffic.”

Of course, with Google’s doubtlessly continuing changes in its criteria for what good content is, presumably, that won’t be Yahoo’s to decide.

So why aren’t investors running for the exits?

True, Demand shares are down by about 4 percent this morning, about 12 hours after Google announced-without-announcing it was overhauling its search algorithm to punish mass content-makers like Demand*.

So if you’re looking at a one-day chart, that looks like an awfully steep drop.

But pull back, and you’ll notice that Demand is still trading at the same range it has been at since it went public last month.

So perhaps investors have thought about Demand’s exposure to Google for some time, believe in CEO Richard Rosenblatt’s argument — in short, he says his company and Google are symbiotic, and working on the same page — and don’t think anything’s changed. Or maybe they’re delusional.

Either way Google’s news, and Demand’s response, have netted out to about a $100,000 drop in market cap. If that’s the full extent of this back-and-forth, we can all move on.

[UPDATE] Demand Media shares came bouncing all the way back, and were up 1.59 percent at the end of trading Friday.]

*Hey Google: What up with the nudging and winking here? For whatever reason, Google won’t say “content farms” or mention specific companies like Demand and Yahoo’s Associated Content when discussion their search changes. But all of the press outlets it pre-briefed on last night’s announcement seem quite sure that’s exactly what Google is talking about. So why not just say that directly, instead of via proxy?

Andrew Siegel–Yahoo’s head of corporate development, who is in charge of its mergers and acquisitions strategy–is leaving the company, according to sources.

The former General Electric exec, who came to the Internet giant just over a year ago, is well liked at Yahoo and also has been active in making the rounds in the tech scene in Silicon Valley.

Siegel’s exit is part of a long line of departures of top talent under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz.

Siegel has made some very prescient moves on game-changing companies for Yahoo to purchase–including Yelp, Foursquare and Groupon–but Yahoo has not been able to land them for a variety of reasons.

In Foursquare’s case, the geolocation hot spot decided to remain independent and take more funding, after also talking to Facebook, and moneybags Google has hip checked Yahoo out of the running for social buying phenom Groupon.

Yelp, the reviews site that had unsuccessful talks with Google too, simply did not want to sell to Yahoo.

Both also were worried about Yahoo’s future prospects and its top management’s ability to turn the situation around, multiple sources confirm, as have other top start-ups that Siegel has been interested in.

And while he has bought some smaller companies for Yahoo–such as Citizen Sports and Associated Content–that’s been frustrating to Siegel, said sources.

Sources also noted that Siegel has also been commuting to Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif., HQ from New York, where his family lives–also a factor in his decision to leave.

He apparently told his Yahoo bosses he was leaving just last week and the company has no replacement as yet.

Yahoo declined to comment about Siegel’s status.

Earlier this week, BoomTown went downtown to the San Francisco HQ of Bleacher Report, one of the many interesting efforts trying to change the way content is made and distributed.

Bleacher Report, no surprise, is focused on sports, and competes with sites such as Yardbarker and SB Nation.

All take different approaches, with Bleacher Report delivering a grassroots platform for both professional and hobbyist writers who want give their take on any topic about college and professional sports, from the latest draft to explaining what’s the deal with “Fear the Beard.”

Bleacher Report vets these writers and does not pay most of them. There are 3,000 contributors, with 750 designated as featured, delivering 500 pieces of content a day.

Bleacher Report also has one million newsletter subscribers across 150 teams.

The writers are presumably attracted to the larger audience–8.8 million unique monthly visitors–they can reach via the site, as well as via newspaper syndication deals.

Think Huffington Post–Bleacher Report’s main business model is advertising too–and you have the right idea.

So far, Bleacher Report has raised $8 million from venture firms, such as Hillsven Capital, and angel investors like Gordon Crawford and Jakob Lodwick, founder of College Humor and Vimeo.

And it recently went out and drafted a pro for a CEO–former Yahoo and News Corp. exec Brian Grey, who focused on online sports content at both those companies.

In addition, it also just added Patrick Keane–former Googler and also former CEO of Associated Content, the social content site recently bought by Yahoo–to its board.

Here’s a video interview I did with Grey–who, full disclosure, was my elder son’s Little League coach for one season (so he does know about baseball, for sure!)–about how the media is morphing, as amateur and professional content is mixed and distributed in new ways:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101124/bleacher-reports-brian-grey-talks-about-new-content-biz-as-patrick-keane-joins-board/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20101123/facebook-acqhirees-make-a-quick-mark-on-its-products/ http://allthingsd.com/20101123/facebook-acqhirees-make-a-quick-mark-on-its-products/#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:00:12 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=672 Facebook has a well-defined M&A strategy of bringing in talent from young, small companies*. The company has reeled in 10 acquisitions this year, in most cases shutting down acquired services soon after a deal closes. The most it is known to have paid for a company is $50 million for FriendFeed. This has helped shape the epidemic of short-term thinking in today’s Web start-ups; sometimes, showing you are technically adept and have interesting ideas is all it takes for you to get a lucrative contract with Facebook and give your backers a mild return on their investment.

Bret Taylor

But there’s also a pattern emerging for what happens to that talent once folks arrive at Facebook. Acqhired CEOs hold prominent roles on Facebook’s product team; nearly every recent Facebook product launch seems to have been led by an acqhired employee. Most recently, Facebook Messages was product-managed by Dan Hsiao, who joined the company with the FriendFeed acquisition. Hsiao had actually been a more junior member of the FriendFeed team, having started there as an intern in 2008. Now he is managing what Facebook called the largest engineering team it has ever put together for a launch.

Meanwhile, former FriendFeed CEO Bret Taylor is CTO of Facebook. Hot Potato CEO Justin Shaffer was product manager for Facebook Groups and is now product manager for the company’s Places and Events products (his company was only acquired in August). Divvyshot CEO Sam Odio is now product manager for Facebook Photos. Nextstop CEO Carl Sjogreen now holds the title “head of platform development,” according to a Facebook spokeperson.

And Gokul Rajaram, known for his seminal work as a product manager on Google AdSense, is now in charge of Facebook’s ad technology. Rajaram came to Facebook through the acquisition of his company Chai Labs, also last August. Multiple sources confirmed Rajaram’s role at Facebook, though Facebook declined to.

Gokul Rajaram

Facebook has its reasons for keeping a big-name hire like Rajaram under the radar; for one, Google can’t be happy to have lost the opportunity to buy his start-up. The former Googler has been an adviser and director to multiple companies, including Canoe Ventures and Associated Content.

Elsewhere, Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt from Facebook’s first acquisition, Parakey, have had significant roles on products like Facebook Questions and the Facebook iPhone app. Ross’s title is Director of Product, though he is currently on sabbatical. Hewitt is working on undisclosed projects but “more on the engineering side,” said the spokesperson.

Facebook is not yet talking about where it will assign Sam Lessin, CEO of the just-acquired storage start-up Drop.io, and Cory Ondrejka and Bruce Rogers, founders of the just-acquired gaming start-up Walletin.

Facebook says it has about “two dozen PMs,” so the acqhired folks account for a significant but not dominant portion of that corps.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told me last month:

We have a big footprint but we want to operate like a startup and take risks, and the best way to do that is to get people who self-select towards being entrepreneurs… The only real theme is that we haven’t bought any companies yet to get the company. It’s always been because we have a lot of respect for the people involved.

This kind of track record may make Facebook an even more enticing acquirer for small start-ups. On the other hand, it’s probably disheartening for Facebook’s homegrown talent to see these opportunities handed to people who are brand-new and who, in many cases, have little experience working at the scale of hundreds of millions of users.

*Facebook has also explored larger acquisitions of companies like Twitter and Foursquare (though Kara Swisher reported those talks were less serious than portrayed elsewhere), but those deals were never consummated.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Bret Taylor photo (CC) Brian Solis.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101123/facebook-acqhirees-make-a-quick-mark-on-its-products/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20101115/yahoo-debuts-contributor-network/ http://allthingsd.com/20101115/yahoo-debuts-contributor-network/#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:01:43 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=37245

Yahoo is debuting a new offering for its hundreds of million of users, which takes the Demand Media model and notches up the volume by presumably allowing a thousand flowers to bloom.

Or, more to the point, blab.

The Internet giant is “inviting people to contribute to many of its most popular sites with the launch of the Yahoo Contributor Network, a new platform for people to publish their creative content on Yahoo!.”

This all comes out of its recent acquisition of Associated Content.

It’s an interesting gambit, since everyone is already yammering away like mad on Facebook.

But Yahoo is trying to put a spin on it by using its copious content assets as inspiration for consumers, and which the Silicon Valley social networking giant does not have.

Yet!

(By the way, Mao Tse-Tung’s whole phrase in his famous speech was: “Let a thousand flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend.” After that happened all over the place, a brutal crackdown was then initiated.)

Let’s hope Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz does not do that, but here is the company’s official press release:

Yahoo! Adds the Voice of the People With the Launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network

Yahoo! Invites You to Reach Millions of People by Contributing to Its Popular Content Sites, Including the Yahoo! Homepage

SUNNYVALE, Calif., November 15, 2010– Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) today is inviting people to contribute to many of its most popular sites with the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, a new platform for people to publish their creative content on Yahoo!. The Yahoo! Contributor Network is an evolution of the Associated Content platform and will bring contributions from more than 400,000 writers, photographers, and videographers to the Internet’s largest media destinations, including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, and even the Yahoo! homepage, among many others.

“The launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network is a great example of how Yahoo! is executing against its content strategy. In less than six months since the acquisition of Associated Content, we’ve completely retooled the platform in order to bring the people’s voice to Yahoo!,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!. “Bringing this authentic perspective to Yahoo!’s most popular sites will deepen our engagement with the millions of people who visit us every day and provide new opportunities for creative contributors who participate in the Yahoo! experience.”

The Yahoo! Contributor Network extends Yahoo!’s position as the leading provider of high-quality, personally relevant content by bringing the diverse perspectives of more than 400,000 contributors to Yahoo!’s existing media portfolio. The new platform invites all Yahoo! users to become a part of the Yahoo! experience by sharing their perspectives and expertise, and also lets Yahoo! editors quickly and efficiently assign and select crowdsourced contributions for all of Yahoo!’s media properties. These contributions–which span topics from niche to mainstream–complement the programming already provided by Yahoo!’s award-winning editorial team and content partners.

“With the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, our contributors now have an unprecedented opportunity for exposure and distribution across Yahoo!’s portfolio,” said Luke Beatty, vice president and general manager, Yahoo!. “Associated Content has been known for maintaining the industry’s largest contributor base, and with the launch of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, we’ve added scale and reach that sets us apart from any other crowdsourced media platform.”

The Yahoo! Contributor Network is the culmination of a months-long effort to merge the strengths of Associated Content and Yahoo!, following the announcement of Yahoo!’s acquisition of Associated Content in May 2010. The Associated Content From Yahoo! library will continue to serve as the official digital library for all content generated by the Yahoo! Contributor Network. It remains one of the world’s largest sources of community-created content, with over two million contributions spanning text, images, video, and audio.

The Yahoo! Contributor Network also sets performance payment guidelines for content featured on Yahoo! sites, and has a dashboard that provides full transparency into how each contributor’s content performs. For more information, visit: http://contributor.yahoo.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101115/yahoo-debuts-contributor-network/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20100826/a-patch-of-its-own-yahoo-builds-a-san-francisco-newspaper/ http://allthingsd.com/20100826/a-patch-of-its-own-yahoo-builds-a-san-francisco-newspaper/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:37:57 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=22899 Patch, AOL’s network of Web-only local newspapers, is open in 100 towns. And AOL (AOL) says it will have 500 by the end of the year. Now it looks like Yahoo is planning its own local Webpaper venture, in San Francisco.

Yahoo will use its Associated Content content farm/factory/mill (pick your favorite phrase!), acquired earlier this year for $90 million, to build out the site. Alan Mutter, the plugged-in newspaper blogger, has the details:

In a breathless email blast to registered contributors at Associated Content, Yahoo said it is “looking for writers living in or near the San Francisco area (like you!) to write compelling, local content–ranging from highlights of your favorite neighborhood destinations to metro-wide, first-person reporting assignments covering the stories and topics not typically found in mainstream news media.”

A questionnaire soliciting personal interests and writing samples from potential contributors indicates that the site will cover crime, local news, politics, weather, traffic, transit, sports, business, local celebrities, personal-interest stories, events and things to do, nightlife, restaurants, social calendar, real estate and development, education.

Those responding to the questionnaire were promised “a $10 assignment to write on any topic about San Francisco!” In the future, Yahoo said “select contributors” will receive “weekly, paid assignments to write articles on SF and their own neighborhoods.”

I’ve asked Yahoo (YHOO) for comment on the venture, but I’ve heard nothing but chirping crickets in response. (UPDATE: See new Yahoo comment below.) Which is too bad, because I had some questions for Carol Bartz and company. For instance:

• Is this a one-off, or should we expect to see more AC-powered local sites?
• If we’re going to see more of these, what should the local newspapers that Yahoo does business with think?
• Or are we looking at this the wrong way? For instance, maybe this really isn’t a foray into local news, but a high-profile demonstration project for Associated Content? Is that plausible?
• Well, how did I get here?

Okay, okay. I know the answer to that last one. If I hear back from the Yahoos, I’ll update. Until, then, enjoy:

UPDATE: Just after I hit “publish,” this statement from Yahoo popped up in my in-box:

Associated Content is an important platform for generating content across Yahoo!’s content verticals, and local is one of many areas on Yahoo! that will benefit from our ability to generate high quality content on specific topics. We are moving quickly to integrate Associated Content into Yahoo!’s media properties and explore new ways to leverage the contributor community, including local.

Meanwhile, PaidContent’s Joe Tartakoff puts Yahoo’s Bay Area efforts in the context of its larger local ambitions. A good read.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100826/a-patch-of-its-own-yahoo-builds-a-san-francisco-newspaper/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20100817/exclusive-yahoo-eyes-cafemom-for-100-million-acquisition/ http://allthingsd.com/20100817/exclusive-yahoo-eyes-cafemom-for-100-million-acquisition/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:14:23 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=32289

According to numerous sources, Yahoo is eager to close a deal to acquire CafeMom, a social-networking and community site aimed at mothers, in a move aimed at turbocharging its often-meandering strategy in the important women’s space.

The price being offered, said sources, is hovering at $100 million, about the same amount Yahoo (YHOO) recently forked over for Associated Content.

The deal might not happen, of course, but several sources said the pair have been deep in negotiations in recent weeks.

CafeMom, sources said, has wanted to hold out for a higher price of closer to $200 million or more. Other interested buyers include Disney (DIS), sources added.

The New York-based CafeMom has been knocking around for a long time in Internet terms, morphing from a sister company owned by CMI Marketing called ClubMom back in the Web 1.0 days.

CMI, which was founded by Andrew Shue and Michael Sanchez, finally got two big fundings in 2008 totaling $17 million, both from Highland Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Sanchez is CEO, but Shue–known for his BoomTown-approved role as the endearingly whiny Billy (But, Alllllliiiisoooonnnn…) on the original “Melrose Place”–is also deeply involved.

On its Web site, the company claims it has 6.7 million unique visitors on its main site and 18.7 million more on its network of affiliated sites, with 100 million page views.

CafeMom said on its Web site that it was profitable, and sources said its revenues were about $25 million to $30 million annually.

Moving from what was essentially a glorified bulletin board for moms, it has added content and other social-networking tools and games.

For example, it recently launched a blog and content platform named “The Stir”–no, really, it is called that.

A recent article on the sassy blog was titled “Parents Who Smuggle Babies Into R-Rated Movies: Ballsy or Crazy?”

(Ballsy, IMHO! You could go crazy enduring only “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” as I can testify. You need some “Salt” in your diet.)

This kind of content offering is all in Yahoo’s wheelhouse, of course, as it seeks to reinvigorate itself by bringing in new talent and brands.

In the women’s space, Yahoo has its Shine site, which is very pretty but in desperate need of a social boost that CafeMom can presumably provide.

Yahoo’s head of M&A Andrew Siegel–Andrew, don’t be scared of me! Call, I don’t bite! Only rarely, that is!–also reportedly took a strong look at Sugar, an innovative San Francisco women’s site. But the start-up declined to sell.

The women’s market is a big one for advertisers, with many competitors–from iVillage to AOL (AOL) to a recent effort by Demand Media to reach women using a site created with supermodel Tyra Banks.

Yahoo declined to comment, but a PR spokeswoman said in an email that “women are an important audience and our Shine site is very successful.”

Calling from Minneapolis, where he and Sanchez were visiting General Mills (GIS) and Target (TGT) about advertising deals, Shue declined to comment, though very charmingly (and very unlike the mumble-mouthed Billy).

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100817/exclusive-yahoo-eyes-cafemom-for-100-million-acquisition/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20100802/yahoo-restructures-u-s-ad-sales-force-with-no-new-head-but-apparently-a-lot-of-prince-charmings/ http://allthingsd.com/20100802/yahoo-restructures-u-s-ad-sales-force-with-no-new-head-but-apparently-a-lot-of-prince-charmings/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:30:48 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=31615

Yahoo announced today that it was restructuring its advertising sales force, after being without a head of its key U.S. unit since mid-March.

Big news: No new top ad sales exec.

Instead, several North American sales execs with larger portfolios will report directly to Hilary Schneider, who is in charge of the Americas for Yahoo (YHOO).

“This elevates the strong talent and brings a broader set of voices one step higher in the organization,” said Schneider in an interview today. “The marketplace is changing rapidly and bringing complete solutions is really the mantra of where the market is going.”

This move is a shift from the direction Yahoo had been heading in since Joanne Bradford stepped down as head of U.S. revenue and market development for Yahoo in mid-March.

Schneider had been leading the search for an external replacement for Bradford, using star headhunter Jim Citrin of Spencer Stuart.

The company apparently was unable to land the kind of prominent name Yahoo had been seeking for the job, after trying to attract several well-known candidates and rejecting others.

“Our leadership in sales is the strongest to date,” said Schneider, explaining the new structure for its ad sales force. “I have kissed a lot of frogs over the years, but it turned out the Prince Charmings we always needed were back at the ranch.”

(Frogs? Prince Charmings? On a ranch? Block that metaphor, although BoomTown will go along anyway!)

“Each of our leaders has strong relationships with advertisers and they know and trust each other,” said Schneider. “I will be consolidating the operational hub and directly managing it this time.”

Among the changes:

Mitch Spolan, the 11-year Yahoo veteran who is in charge of North American field sales, will also pick up responsibility for agency development and relationships.

Seth Dallaire, who has been running mid-market sales, will now be in charge of channel sales, reseller relationships and new and emerging formats, such as video, local, social and mobile.

Frank Weishaupt, who has been in charge of marketplaces, will add sales operations and training and sales development to his portfolio.

Lastly, Jim Stothard, who has been in charge of account management, will be leaving Yahoo for personal reasons, but will be working with Schneider to find his replacement.

Schneider said the new sales structure will eliminate a layer of management to better focus on improving advertising sales

That’s important, due to Yahoo’s recent quarterly earnings report, in which it posted flat revenue compared to last year, despite a recovery of the display advertising market.

Display is an area in which Yahoo (YHOO) has long dominated, although Google (GOOG) and others have stepped up competitive efforts aggressively.

So, the slowness in filling the company’s key sales position has had a lot of people inside Yahoo a little jumpy, because of the importance of firm leadership in the premium display online ad business in which the Internet giant needs to keep excelling.

Microsoft (MSFT) recently hired one of the people Yahoo had considered–former MTV Networks ad exec Carolyn Everson–for its head of sales.

With Everson and others not panning out, one hope was that Patrick Keane, CEO of Associated Content, which Yahoo just acquired, would take the job. But sources said he declined the offer.

Yahoo also had eyeballed internal candidates, but it seems to have decided to simply kiss, oops, elevate almost all of them.

Said Yahoo in its official statement about the changes:

“Yahoo! is committed to maintaining and strengthening partnerships with advertisers and agencies, and has a long history of sales leadership in the industry. The North American sales organization will now report directly to Hilary Schneider, EVP of the Americas. This organizational change will elevate the strong executive talent at Yahoo! and accelerate our momentum in the marketplace.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100802/yahoo-restructures-u-s-ad-sales-force-with-no-new-head-but-apparently-a-lot-of-prince-charmings/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100723/video-boomtown-gets-blogging-tips-from-yahoo-actually-from-its-new-style-guide-that-is/ http://allthingsd.com/20100723/video-boomtown-gets-blogging-tips-from-yahoo-actually-from-its-new-style-guide-that-is/#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:05:51 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=31125

Yahoo has been trying of late to double down on its digital content hegemony–from buying social media maker Associated Content to a range of new initiatives such as Upshot, an effort to delve deeper into the new push to determine content selections based on search.

And now, it’s also trying to take over the old-dead-trees part of the equation with the publication of a massive style guide about new media publishing, which came out earlier this month, titled “The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, And Creating Content For The Digital World.”

The hefty tome was edited by Chris Barr, Yahoo’s senior editorial director, who told me in an interview last week that the company was trying to create the Associated Press Stylebook–which has been the classic standard for traditional media–of the next era.

“Things in editorial have changed so much in how content is created and published, so we felt the digital space had to have a definitive guide to deal with a whole new set of issues,” said Barr. “And we felt, given how big a role we play in online content, that we really were in a position to do that.”

Indeed, and here is a little video tribute I did using the book:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100723/video-boomtown-gets-blogging-tips-from-yahoo-actually-from-its-new-style-guide-that-is/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100709/yahoos-media-chief-jimmy-pitaro-talks-about-the-upshot-of-contents-future/ http://allthingsd.com/20100709/yahoos-media-chief-jimmy-pitaro-talks-about-the-upshot-of-contents-future/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:43:18 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=30392

Whilst in Santa Monica, Calif., this week, BoomTown stopped in at the YahooPlex for a quick chat with the Internet giant’s Jimmy Pitaro, who is VP of media.

The focus was a high-profile blog called The Upshot, Yahoo’s effort to delve deeper into the new push to determine content selections based on search.

While some consider such efforts as a “democratizing” of the news, others are more concerned about relying on algorithms to determine the best coverage and the implications for a society guided by its own searches.

That has not stopped the trend from growing, with companies such as Demand Media using freelancers to create millions of articles. Yahoo recently bought a competitor, Associated Content, to jump into the game.

The Upshot is a little different, essentially using analysis of popular search words or topics to inform the news staff.

Articles are then produced for the Yahoo blog based on this audience data, on a wider range of coverage than the more typical how-to articles produced using this method.

In this video, Pitaro dismissed worries that Yahoo (YHOO) coverage would be guided solely by a formula for user-driven, advertiser-coddling, money-making-only content, but it is clear the idea of using search as an editorial tool is the wave of the future as far as Yahoo is concerned.

Here’s the interview:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100709/yahoos-media-chief-jimmy-pitaro-talks-about-the-upshot-of-contents-future/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100706/help-wanted-so-when-is-yahoo-going-to-hire-a-new-head-of-ad-sales/ http://allthingsd.com/20100706/help-wanted-so-when-is-yahoo-going-to-hire-a-new-head-of-ad-sales/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:00:45 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=30119

It’s been almost four months since Joanne Bradford stepped down as head of U.S. revenue and market development for Yahoo and the company has yet to hire a new exec to fill the key job.

That’s got a lot of people inside Yahoo (YHOO) a little jumpy, according to numerous sources who have contacted me recently, because of the importance of firm leadership in the premium display online ad business in which the Internet giant needs to keep excelling.

U.S. head Hilary Schneider has been leading the search for a replacement for Bradford, using star headhunter Jim Citrin of Spencer Stuart.

But she’s reportedly been unable to land the kind of prominent name Yahoo has been seeking for the job, after trying to attract several well-known candidates and rejecting others.

Microsoft (MSFT) recently hired an exec Yahoo had considered–former MTV Networks ad exec Carolyn Everson, who is likely to be announcing a new sales structure there soon–for its head of U.S. online ad sales.

With Everson and others not panning out, one hope was that Patrick Keane, CEO of Associated Content, which Yahoo just acquired, would take the job. But sources said he has thus far declined the offer.

And that’s why, sources said, Yahoo is back to eyeballing internal candidates again, especially 11-year Yahoo veteran Mitch Spolan, VP of North American field sales, and Mollie Spilman, Yahoo’s SVP of B2B marketing and also its packaging group.

Another Yahoo exec who had been in the running: Seth Dallaire, a former Microsoft exec whom Bradford brought to the company last fall as VP of mid-market sales, a newly-created role responsible for all mid-market sales efforts across search and display advertising.

We’ll see how it turns out, but as Yahoo just closed its second quarter, it will be important to get some clarity around its most important business in its most important market, especially as its stock continues its lackluster performance.

To help goose its shares, Yahoo announced a $3 billion stock buyback plan last week.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100706/help-wanted-so-when-is-yahoo-going-to-hire-a-new-head-of-ad-sales/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100603/richard-rosenblatt-paul-steiger-session/ http://allthingsd.com/20100603/richard-rosenblatt-paul-steiger-session/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:10:32 +0000 Peter Kafka http://d8.allthingsd.com/?p=486

What’s the future of the media business? Demand Media, the Google-savvy “content farm” that generates thousands of computer-assigned, low-cost Web items a day? Or ProPublica, a nonprofit that produces deep-dive investigative pieces and publishes them on its own site and in the pages of high-profile partners?

Good guess: Some of both. But let’s allow both parties to make their own case.

Brief background: Demand Media is Richard Rosenblatt’s follow-up to MySpace, which he sold to News Corp. (NWS); Paul Steiger founded ProPublica after a long career at The Wall Street Journal.

Below is the full video of the interview, followed by the liveblog:

Liveblog

9:41 am: Kara asks Paul Steiger to explain what he’s up to.

Steiger: Stories are aimed at abuse of power and empowering people to make change. I started there because when I was leaving the Journal in 2007, the traditional news business was collapsing. We had $10 million in funding and that wasn’t something I could turn down in that environment. I didn’t have time to be worried–I had to leave the Journal because of mandatory retirement age, and my wife said I couldn’t wear sweatpants during the weekday.

9:44 am: Kara to Rosenblatt–Please explain the controversy regarding Demand.

[WARNING: Rosenblatt speaks very quickly. It's unlikely that I'll be able to get more than impressionistic stabs at what he's saying.]

“We only write content that people want….We’re not journalists, all right? The only people that call us journalists are journalists.” That said, what we do is “more like service journalism….There’s no piece of content made that we think is good” because we only make content that people tell us they think is good.

9:46 am: Rosenblatt–We do no marketing. All traffic comes from organic search.

I don’t know why people call this “dreck.” When you do something 6,000 times a day, it always looks like it’s of low-quality. We’re okay with that; we’re continually trying to prove to people that we’re doing good stuff.

We have a deal with USA Today and others that we’ll be announcing.

9:47 am: Kara to Steiger–What do you think of all this?

Steiger: I see this as a reordering of the environment that we’re all going to have to live in. You [Demand] make stuff people want; you control costs, and it’s working. Another model is the Politico model, with a combination of tightly controlled print plus a big Web site. We do the most expensive, the most important journalism for democracy.

Kara: Example?

Steiger: A story we did with the Los Angeles Times about nurses getting bogus licenses. A story about police in New Orleans killing people. There are five or six things like that in the past year where we can point to changes that have taken place because of our stories. These things can cost tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands to produce.

In the old days, that could be a loss leader for for-profit newspapers. Can’t do that anymore, so we need philanthropy. “Silicon Valley, come on in!”

9:50 am: Kara to Rosenblatt–Will you do “Top 10 nurses that beat people up”?

Rosenblatt: No

Kara: Wait a minute! People may want it!

Rosenblatt: I think journalism is important, and the problem is trying to pay for it. We can help publications like USA Today, where we generate content and revenue for them, and they can take that money to fund other reporting. We’re not going to save journalism, but we can help it.

Kara to Rosenblatt: You employ a lot of journalists.

Rosenblatt: Not journalists.

Kara: Former journalists?

Rosenblatt: They may have been former journalists, and they may do journalism somewhere else. We call them freelancers, content creators.

9:53 am: Kara asks Rosenblatt to explain editing/oversight.

Rosenblatt: Eleven people touch this stuff before it gets published, etc. Anyway, let’s say we do 7,000 pieces of content a day. That’s 77,000 individual touches per day, with 10,000 freelancers around the Web. That’s amazing. That’s what the Web is made for.

9:54 am: Kara–How do they get paid?

Rosenblatt: They can get paid by piece or by revenue-share. But most of them prefer to get paid by content, because it’s guaranteed.

9:55 am: Kara–at The Wall Street Journal, we had people who worked for months on a single story. Is that done?

Steiger: The Journal, the New York Times and Washington Post are still vertically integrated and have powerful enough brands and talent that I think they can make it into the next generation.

Kara: Two of those are in dicey shape.

Steiger: Remember that there are two things going on right now. There is a secular shift, with the business model being destroyed. But there’s also a recession. So as that eases, we’ll have a better sense of who can survive.

9:58 am: Steiger–I’d love to go back to 10 years ago, or longer, to the golden age of journalism. But not even Silicon Valley can produce a time machine.

Kara: So do you think even the big newspapers that survive will switch to audience-driven content creation? That’s not what journalism is about.

Steiger: No matter what you’re doing, you’re still making stuff with an idea of what the people who are reading you want. It’s a broader way of thinking about it than Demand, but there’s a common thread.

9:59 am: Kara to Rosenblatt–Where is your actual business? Is it domains?

Rosenblatt: We have two main businesses: Registrar/domains. It’s steady, recurring revenue, and it generates a lot of data. Almost 10 percent of the Web hits our servers via these domains. It’s an exciting source of data.

Then we have the media business. That’s 50 percent bigger, in revenue, than other business and growing fast.

Of that business, less than 10 percent is domain advertising business. Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) stick ads on tenniselbow.com, etc. We think that’s a great business also.

Kara: Is your media business profitable?

Rosenblatt: Can’t talk about that.

Kara: Does that mean it’s not profitable?

Rosenblatt: Can’t talk about that.

Kara: But you’re going public, right?

Rosenblatt: Can’t talk about that.

10:03 am: Kara–you’re dependent on Google, right?

Rosenblatt: In the way that everyone is dependent on Google. Or that the iPhone is dependent on AT&T (T). But everyone searches on the Web. So some of our sites, like eHow, are getting traffic from Google. But others aren’t.

If Google changes their algorithm, we think about that. But we spend a lot of care on what we do, and we think there’s a move to quality long-tail content that Google values.

10:05 am: Kara to Rosenblatt–AOL is doing what you’re doing. Yahoo just bought Associated Content. It has more distribution than you do. What does that mean for you?

Rosenblatt: We love that AOL (AOL) and Yahoo are validating what we’re doing. “In a market this big, that’s in the first inning, there’s plenty of room for all of us.”

10:05 am: Kara to Steiger–How do you feel about the kind of journalism you do becoming nonprofit work? Does that depress you?

Steiger: “I’m the opposite of disheartened. I’m very excited.” Yes, the business is shrinking and people are losing jobs, and I don’t want to make light of that. But we’re attracting great people; we’ve won a Pulitzer Prize. The work will get done. The work is crucial to our society, and it needs philanthropic support. But so do orchestras and clinics and universities.

10:07 am: Kara–Is there a way to actually make money doing this?

Steiger: “Conceivably, but I can’t think of what it is.” If you’re focused entirely on this, “at this stage, you need philanthropic help.”

Kara to Rosenblatt: Can you think of how to do this?

Rosenblatt: You can hold a conference and charge people $5,000 a head. [Applause in conference room and in D8 cave.]

Q&A

For Rosenblatt: Why won’t you call your people “journalists”? Steve Jobs was full of venom for “bloggers,” too. Why not call people who write for money “journalists”?

Rosenblatt: If our writers want to call themselves journalists, great. But they’re not doing reporting from Afghanistan. We’re content creators, making things that people want.

Steiger: I just think that the labels get in the way.

Q: Who are those 11 people that touch Demand Media’s content? What do they do?

Rosenblatt: Some people are involved in “titling.” For SEO or social media purposes. Three people are involved in checking each title. Then people involved in each property select stories, depending on the voice. Then copy editors, copy chiefs, writers. We’re actually going to be adding more. We can make it so efficient, that we can add more roles, and everyone can keep making the same amount of money.

Q: What about rolling out content on the domains you run?

A: Not yet. Maybe in coming years. It’s not a focus right now. We do think the assets that you own and we own, we think those assets “have great optionality later” to put content on.

Q for Steiger: Do you share Steve Jobs’s distaste for bloggers?

Steiger: I sleep with a blogger! My wife blogs from 11 pm to 2 am. I’m an enthusiastic supporter of blogging. They bring a lot of audience to ProPublica’s Web site. I think what Steve was getting at is that there’s a danger of too many people commenting and not enough people finding out what’s going on. [I don't think that's entirely what Jobs was complaining about, btw.]

This content-creation session is now over.

A note about our coverage: This liveblog is not an official transcript of the conversation that occurred onstage. Rather, it is a compilation of quotes, paraphrased statements and ad-lib observations written and posted to the Web as quickly as possible. It is not intended as a transcript and should not be interpreted as one.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100603/richard-rosenblatt-paul-steiger-session/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100526/heres-what-analysts-should-be-asking-about-at-yahoos-investor-day-the-microsoft-search-deal-and-no-silver-bullets/ http://allthingsd.com/20100526/heres-what-analysts-should-be-asking-about-at-yahoos-investor-day-the-microsoft-search-deal-and-no-silver-bullets/#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 07:17:51 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=28846

This morning, Yahoo is holding its annual investor day at its Silicon Valley HQ, starring CEO Carol Bartz and a panoply of top execs at the Internet giant.

While this kind of dog-and-pony show is typical for companies–an effort to get all chummy with institutional investors and financial analysts and convince them that there is a grand scheme for the road ahead–what’s really at stake is the need to cover over problems and play up the prettier parts.

That’s why–after a period of rather fallow deal activity–Yahoo (YHOO) suddenly started pulling out the shiny objects just last week, designed, in part, to show that Yahoo is on the move and pushing vigorously forward.

We have a plan, folks! Silver bullets all around!

That included its acquisition of both social media start-up Associated Content and Koprol, a social location service in Asia, as well as a big, noisy partnership with mobile handset giant Nokia (NOK) related to email and maps.

But while those are all well and good, they will have almost zero impact on Yahoo until they get revved up and results can be judged.

Thus, it’s probably more helpful for those in analog attendance–the press was not invited as we are apparently considered akin to skunks at a garden party–to focus on some key issues that are present and accounted for right now and to grill Yahoo about them.

To be fair, Yahoo is planning on covering the most important of these at the moment: The status of its partnership deal with Microsoft (MSFT), related to search and online advertising.

It will be interesting to see what advertising operations exec Mark Morrissey, the Yahoo-side integration lead, has to say about it all and what impact the company expects from it.

Some key questions that need asking:

How soon does it roll out–late this year or early next year?

How does Yahoo get search share up–via improvements to its homepage and user experience–to make this as lucrative as possible?

Will the deal, which is intended to result in bigger search-query volume, finally bring a key metric–revenue per search–up, especially after the Microsoft RPS guarantees run out in 18 months?

Do the cost savings of letting Microsoft’s Bing power Yahoo search compensate for trading away control of a key source of income and revenue?

And perhaps most of all, will any of this put a dent in the overwhelming search dominance of Google (GOOG)?

Here’s a really good analysis by Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney on this very subject, with lots of nice numbers to chew over:

yhoo search deal

Of course, there are a lot of other thing to look at, such as:

The continuing issue around the talent drain (Yahoo is smart to trot out lively new Chief Products dude Blake Irving, formerly of Microsoft, to counter the drip-leak-of-execs issue), an explanation of its penny-ante (but pricey) marketing efforts so far, a report on what’s most innovative in its oft-clogged product pipeline, a detailed assessment of the online display market and thoughts on increased competition in this key Yahoo arena from Google. Also: What’s up with mobile?

You can see the whole agenda for the day here, and BoomTown will be following the proceedings via a Webcast.

Also, as Yahoo notes on its Welcome page for the event: “Everything you’ll hear today–from looking back at what we’ve done to looking ahead at the incredible opportunities we’re tackling–add up to one thing: creating shareholder value.”

So analysts, let’s don’t forget about the stock price, which has stubbornly stuck in the $15 range for a long time now.

In fact, it is now almost the exact same price as it was one year ago and 75 cents lower than at its last investor day in late October last year.

Yes, definitely ask about that.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100526/heres-what-analysts-should-be-asking-about-at-yahoos-investor-day-the-microsoft-search-deal-and-no-silver-bullets/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100524/peachy-keane-will-yahoo-hold-onto-associated-content-ceo/ http://allthingsd.com/20100524/peachy-keane-will-yahoo-hold-onto-associated-content-ceo/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 12:15:21 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=28715

Earlier this week, Yahoo acquired social content start-up Associated Content for $90 million.

While founder Luke Beatty was prominently presented by Yahoo (YHOO) as the face of the deal, CEO Patrick Keane, pictured here, was oddly missing from most of the PR around the media-focused acquisition.

The reason, according to several sources at Yahoo: Yahoo’s top execs have not yet persuaded Keane to stay after the purchase is complete.

It’s not for lack of trying. Yahoo execs–such as CEO Carol Bartz and even co-founder Jerry Yang–have been trying to get Keane signed up, a move made more difficult since Keane got a big slug of cash in the payout of the deal.

One issue: What job would Keane get? One possibility among many is head of U.S. advertising sales, which was recently vacated by Joanne Bradford.

But sources close to the situation said Yahoo execs are also offering Keane the option of choosing his job.

That’s because he has substantially more consumer Internet experience than most of Bartz’s recent hires, many of whom have worked in the enterprise arena.

Bradford left abruptly in March for Associated Content competitor Demand Media, leaving her key job open. Yahoo hired Spencer Stuart’s Jim Citrin to conduct a search.

Keane certainly fits the sales bill, from his years as head of sales strategy at Google (GOOG) and CMO of the interactive unit of CBS (CBS).

Keane would clearly be a pick with more of a strategy bent than others whom Yahoo is aiming at, who are more plain-vanilla online ad sales execs.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100524/peachy-keane-will-yahoo-hold-onto-associated-content-ceo/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100522/weekend-update-05-22-10-two-two-two-phones-in-one-edition/ http://allthingsd.com/20100522/weekend-update-05-22-10-two-two-two-phones-in-one-edition/#comments Sun, 23 May 2010 03:08:30 +0000 Drake Martinet http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=41248 This week, the valley was abuzz (certainly not atwitter) with preparations for the Google (GOOG) I/O developers conference, which aimed to showcase what the search giant has been up to inside the skunk works. Would it be TV? Video? A tablet? Free phones? Read on for all the news from a big week in the Valley, where it was about way more than Google.

Kara began the week just as she said she would, with another Jobs blast from the past. The video features Jobs from way back at D3 (we’re approaching D8 now), offering all kinds of Jobsian wisdom. Kara moved on to the world of Yahoo (YHOO) and its arms race with AOL (AOL) and Demand Media. Yahoo bought up Associated Content for a reported $90 million. Cheap content isn’t cheap, apparently. Kara finished things with some breaking news Friday about the FTC approved Google-AdMob deal. Now that Apple (AAPL) has iAd, maybe there is just enough competition.

Digital Daily began with a piece of significant Apple ephemera. Apple watchers have spotted the “tethering” option in the most recent iPhone OS 4 beta. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally get to do what anyone with a Blackberry has been doing for years. John wrote several pieces about the announcements from the Google I/O event. Among the notables was Google TV, where a set-top box connects the TV to the Web in an attempt to jump the content gap. John closed out the week with news that Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) will likely release a tablet based on Palm’s webOS by year’s end. We sure hope they keep the click wheel.

MediaMemo began the week with a report on the progress of iPad-iPhone magazine apps unfolding in the App Store. GQ is doing okay with its offerings, though Peter isn’t convinced the iPad is giving the app a significant boost. In pseudomedia news, TweetDeck, the Twitter client to the stars (or, at least, Ashton uses it), raised another $3 million. If TweetDeck is any indication, maybe Twitter’s public remarks haven’t killed off the client economy yet. Peter closed things out with an exclusive from the content factory world. He reported that Rafat Ali, founder of paidContent, will leave the business in early July.

Personal Technology got ahold of the latest 4G phone, the EVO, from HTC and gave it a speed test in Baltimore, home of the 4G connection. Walt said the promised speed was delivered, but the battery lagged under that enormous data load. The phone’s other features, like the front-facing camera, didn’t disappoint, but Walt’s criticism is well taken. It doesn’t matter how many bells and whistles the thing has if there isn’t any juice left to run it. In Mossberg’s Mailbox this week, Walt answered a pair of questions about an American iPad in Paris and laptop warranties. Katie published a review of Togetherville.com, a social network designed for the six-to-10 crowd. The kidcentric network is designed to be a safe place for children to learn the lessons of social networking without the risks associated with more adult choices. It seems “walled gardens” can be okay if they are of the “kinder” variety. Katie hopes the site fleshes out its content offerings and becomes a real place of refuge for kids on the Web.

It turns out that Google gave two phones instead of one, that the twitter ecosystem hasn’t been killed yet, and that mo’ data means mo’ battery drain in the world of 4G. If you think this was a full week, stay tuned. We are in final countdown to D8, and with the speakers list reading like a who’s who of media and tech digerati, it will be one for the books, or at least the blogs.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100522/weekend-update-05-22-10-two-two-two-phones-in-one-edition/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100520/exclusive-yahoo-poised-to-unveil-project-nike-partnership-deal-with-nokia-at-monday-event/ http://allthingsd.com/20100520/exclusive-yahoo-poised-to-unveil-project-nike-partnership-deal-with-nokia-at-monday-event/#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 06:38:37 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=28620

Today, Yahoo sent out an invite for a press conference in New York on Monday with a mysterioso tone:

It read, vaguely:

“Please join Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz for an exciting announcement about providing global consumers with rich online and mobile experiences, and bringing forward a new era in keeping consumers connected.”

That’s all it took to get BoomTown on the horn to find out what that meant.

And, according to sources, that will be a deal with Finland-based mobile phone giant Nokia (NOK) to build Yahoo (YHOO) email, search and other applications and services into a range of its devices.

While the pair had once discussed Nokia making a Yahoo-centric phone, sources said that is unlikely to be part of this deal.

Such a partnership–code-named “Project Nike” after the Greek goddess of victory and not the sneaker–has been batted around for many years between the companies without result, even as Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) have grabbed the spotlight and business in the exploding smartphone market.

Yahoo has had a range of various mobile initiatives and has had many, mostly failed, partnerships with carriers and telecom makers.

But without its own phone or mobile operating system, such as Google’s Android, the Internet giant is essentially nowhere in what has become the most important digital sector today.

Nokia, which makes more mobile devices–mostly “feature” phones, not smartphones–than any other company, has also struggled to keep up the lightning-fast pace of innovation and has been looking for ways to compete as the landscape shifts dramatically.

That’s why the long-festering deal was placed again on the fast track, especially by Bartz, who has put a lot of emphasis of late on showing Yahoo to be more relevant and cutting-edge.

Thus, the Nokia deal is likely to be a splashy centerpiece of next week’s investor day on Wednesday in Silicon Valley, which will feature Bartz and her senior management, including Americas EVP Hilary Schneider.

Schneider has played a lead role in the Nokia deal, which sources said closed two to three weeks ago.

Bartz will also be appearing at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York next week, a speaker addition that will be announced soon, where she is likely to discuss the deal.

Yahoo has been on a bit of a deal tear of late, purchasing social publishing start-up Associated Content for $90 million earlier this week.

And while the Nokia deal will likely garner a lot of attention when announced, execution will–as usual–be key in determining if this works, especially since both companies are now in a much weaker position.

“Recently, Nokia has offered devices that people don’t want and Yahoo has launched mobile services that they don’t want,” said one person familiar with the talks. “Perhaps in working together, they will find a way to finally create some value.”

Yahoo declined to comment and Nokia has not responded to an email I sent tonight.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100520/exclusive-yahoo-poised-to-unveil-project-nike-partnership-deal-with-nokia-at-monday-event/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20100518/yahoo-snaps-up-associated-content-for-90-million-to-counter-aol-and-demand-media/ http://allthingsd.com/20100518/yahoo-snaps-up-associated-content-for-90-million-to-counter-aol-and-demand-media/#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 20:00:56 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=28517

Yahoo, in a clear attempt to get deep into the social content space and better compete with both AOL and Demand Media, announced the acquisition of Associated Content.

Sources close to the situation said the price was $90 million in cash, which is a solid outcome for Associated Content, a start-up that found itself in an increasingly crowded space for cheaper content.

There are no earn-outs and no restrictions, sources added.

Yahoo (YHOO) declined to provide the financial terms of the deal and said it expected to complete this acquisition in the third quarter of 2010.

In the deal, which the pair have been talking about for some time, the code name for the New York- and Denver-based company was Atlantic.

And, indeed, Yahoo is aiming to garner a massive sea of content by buying the company, which said it has 380,000 contributors and many millions of pieces of content.

It has about 16 million unique monthly visitors, according to recent surveys, and has signed several distribution deals with major media partners.

“This is really about our commitment to providing high-quality content that is relevant to users and also advertisers,” said David Ko, who heads Yahoo’s media efforts, in an interview with BoomTown just before the deal was announced.

For Associated, said founder Luke Beatty, it was a need to get access to Yahoo’s huge pool of consumers for its content, provided by armies of freelancers. It was founded in 2004, he noted, with the tagline: “The People’s Media Company.”

“We invented the category, thinking about this idea that there should be a democratization of content,” he said. “Being part of Yahoo increases our scale to a completely different level.”

Ko said Associated Content was “far superior than any competitor.”

It was a sentiment countered by Demand CEO and co-founder Richard Rosenblatt:

“The fact that Yahoo–which has historically sourced content from storied brands like Reuters, Associated Press and entertainment deals with Hollywood–is now ready to bring user-generated content to its advertisers is fascinating,” he wrote in an email to me. “Demand Media’s approach is certainly different than either AC, Yahoo or the combination. We think that our approach is differentiated due to our large professional content creator network, rigorous editorial processes, strong technologies and algorithms and distribution on a combination of owned and partner sites.”

Yahoo’s Ko also called Associated Content a “pioneer” in the space to make bank from crowd-sourced, search-optimized content efforts for media about more mundane topics like back pain.

And, indeed, that is true.

Yet Associated Content’s efforts have been overshadowed recently by those of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Demand Media, which is heading for an IPO at a multibillion-dollar valuation, as well as AOL (AOL), which has put a lot of muscle behind both its low-cost social content at its Seed unit and higher-priced premium content efforts.

As MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka wrote:

“Associated Content looks and acts a lot like Demand Media, the Santa Monica-based “content mill” that’s drawn a lot of attention in the last year or so–though both companies bristle when you compare the two. It’s also thematically related to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong’s push to automate the production of content at that company.”

And while Beatty had said Associated Content was not for sale, many other sources inside and outside the company said it has been shopping itself for a while now, including to both Demand and AOL, in fact.

It hired Allen & Co. earlier this year, after AOL talks went nowhere.

Ironically, Armstrong was an angel investor in Associated Content, which is also backed by Canaan Partners and SoftBank Capital. It had raised a total of $21.4 million.

Another irony: In the past, Yahoo has taken a look at acquisitions of both AOL and Demand, deeming both too pricey.

In addition, the relationship between Demand and Yahoo has gotten testy of late, with Demand poaching top exec talent from Yahoo, such as U.S. ad sales head Joanne Bradford, among others.

People close to Associated Content say it’s on a $15 million run rate, up from $4 million earlier in the year.

Still, settling in at Yahoo and for a solid price is a good outcome for Associated, whose staff will now be integrated with the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

“Combining our world-class editorial team with Associated Content’s makes this a game-changer,” said Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz in a statement. “Together, we’ll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network. These are important aspects of building engaging consumer experiences on Yahoo!, and one of the reasons why we’re one of the most visited destinations online.”

Here is a video that Yahoo posted on its Yodel Anecdotal blog of Beatty (good lord, you really don’t need to kiss up to your new bosses with purple socks, Luke!):

@ Yahoo! Video

And here is the official press release from Yahoo about the deal:

Yahoo! to Acquire Associated Content

Extending leadership in content with the addition of 380,000 contributors

Sunnyvale, Calif.–May 18, 2010–Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Associated Content Inc. This strategic move extends Yahoo’s ability to provide high quality, personally relevant content for the benefit of more than 600 million users as well as tens of thousands of advertisers. As Yahoo! enhances its social, mobile, local, and media offerings, the acquisition of Associated Content reinforces the company’s longstanding promise to offer the best of the Web–by combining Associated Content’s approximately 380,000 contributors who provide rich and varied content on a broad array of passion points, with Yahoo’s leadership in partnering with established content brands and the award-winning team of editors and experts from Yahoo!.

“Combining our world-class editorial team with Associated Content’s makes this a game-changer,” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo! Inc. “Together, we’ll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network. These are important aspects of building engaging consumer experiences on Yahoo!, and one of the reasons why we’re one of the most visited destinations online.”

“The Associated Content team and our 380,000 contributors are looking forward to joining Yahoo! and to the opportunities that being part of a global Internet brand presents,” said Luke Beatty, Associated Content founder and president. “Combining our crowd sourced content with Yahoo!’s distribution, world class editorial team and online marketing leadership will accelerate our growth as we continue to leverage our best-of-breed platform to deliver high quality compelling content on more than 60,000 topics.”

For advertisers, this deal will expand Yahoo! into more topic areas and real-time content generation. The combination promises to offer advertisers even more opportunities to engage groups of passionate consumers in ways they will find uniquely appealing to their interests and tastes. Having insight into user intent through its leading search products enables Yahoo! to identify topics important to advertisers and users. Yahoo! plans to use Associated Content to create content around those topics and leverage Associated Content to contribute content to existing media properties. Associated Content also provides more opportunities for Yahoo! to partner and collaborate with publishers who can help the company shape the tremendous variety of content coming in, into something bespoke and even more engaging.

While current Associated Content content is U.S.-centric, Yahoo! expects to scale the platform globally.

Associated Content was founded by Luke Beatty in Denver, Colorado, in 2004. Associated Content receives more than 16 million unique users per month (comScore) and the editorial staff reviews more than 50,000 pieces of content per month, including articles, images, audio and video.

Yahoo! expects to complete this acquisition in the third quarter of 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100518/yahoo-snaps-up-associated-content-for-90-million-to-counter-aol-and-demand-media/feed/ 7