Posts Tagged ‘huffington post’

Why Huffington Post Is The Perfect Acquisition For Yahoo’s Media Strategy

8 Jun
2010

by Ben Elowitz

Last month, I wrote a post titled “Associated Content is Yahoo’s First Big Media Move. Here’s What Should Come Next,” in which I pushed Yahoo to acquire premium content properties to overcome the commodity signal they sent by acquiring AC.  I said at the time that Huffington Post’s curation model “crowdsources content but applies a strong point of view and features premier branded names, lifting it above the commodity fold.”  For Yahoo, Huffington Post is the perfect combination of premium and economical.

Now, over this last weekend, Erick Schonfeld wrote at TechCrunch that deal discussions between these two publishers are underway for a content partnership or outright acquisition. Though Arianna Huffington denies it, other sources indicate that HuffPo has been on Yahoo’s short list, and I wouldn’t be surprised if conversations have been ongoing.

While  Yahoo had previously announced intentions to compete in news by hiring brand-name reporters, that direction is fraught for the big portal:  the news category is difficult to lead with a heavy demand on consistently breaking  news — and it would take years for Yahoo to build the credibility in original reporting to become a true audience magnet.   And the prize for winning even if they do?  It could be losses, not profits, as has been born out by the experience of myriad old media outlets who are now making over their businesses.

What Huffington Post represents is a far better road for Yahoo to go from portal to destination in a realistic way.  HuffPo can draw audiences not by competing with the news outlets on reporting but with great access and point of view – both of which are within Yahoo’s brand and execution reach.  It would serve as an anchor property with true destination draw.

Indeed, Huffington Post may be unique among the news-oriented sites of the portals, curators, and aggregators in having earned true premium positioning.  They did so by emphasizing a strong and reliable point of view along with affiliation with notable brands (such as regulars Arianna Huffington herself, Bill Maher, Harry Shearer, and Rosie O’Donnell, along with guest posts from a robust range of influentials).  Along the way, the site has also earned an outstanding brand and destination audience of 22 million (comScore), consistently garnering visits from both search engine referrals (14% of traffic from Google according to compete.com) and social networks (16% from Facebook).

This destination draw is critical for Yahoo.  At Yahoo’s home page, 73% of monthly viewers are there to get their mail – and that usage is shrinking at (2%) per year (comscore April 2010 vs. April 2009) vs. a US internet universe which grew at 10%.  As Yahoo commits to a media-company destiny, its strategy must be to create high-end destination titles that will draw premium advertising – not just keep mail users on-network longer.

For those in charge of Yahoo’s media properties, David Ko and Jimmy Pitaro, they would get two other benefits to leverage:  HuffPo gives Yahoo a premium curation model prototype for it to replicate; and a DNA transplant to bring in the talent and experience to scale that model.

As far as the first, Huffington Post has shown itself to be the best of the curators, establishing a strong point of view that draws a huge audience with near-zero cost for original content.  And the model – the fame and traffic of Huffington Post beget contribution from interesting people, which drives more fame and traffic for Huffington Post’s brand – is replicable in other categories, as HuffPo has shown with its entertainment category rumored to already reach an audience of 10 million monthly, according to internal measurements.  This is the sort of model that Yahoo should be banking on, as commodity content alone will never make Yahoo a premier media company.

Perhaps more importantly, there is nothing to catalyze the adoption of a new direction like bringing on a talented and effective crew.  An acquisition of Huffington Post brings not just a branded destination, but a whole crew of operators with a scarce and effective set of skill, approach, and attitudes.  Those genetic elements are exactly what Yahoo needs to quickly set a new approach to existing properties with large audiences, such as entertainment, shine, and omg!, as well as to each new title launched.

All in all, an acquisition of Huffington Post would form the perfect foundation for Yahoo’s new ambitions as a premier media destination – and would be well worth the several hundred million dollars it would surely cost to set a bold and profitable strategy for Yahoo to be a premier media company.

The New Rules For Judging ‘Quality’ In Published Content

11 May
2010

by Ben Elowitz

This article by Ben Elowitz originally appeared as a guest post on paidContentEngaging Readers Online

Last week, I explained why the traditional ways of judging “quality” in published content are useless in the digital age. Judging by readers response to that piece, those dated values (which I labeled credential, correctness, objectivity and craftsmanship) are still sacred to many people. But here’s the problem: They simply aren’t enough to win audiences, drive financial success, or, for that matter, ensure viability. The demise of institutions like Newsweek proves that—and shows that publishers that don’t move beyond these anachronistic measures of success will perish.

So this week, I’m offering part two of my take on the changing definition of quality in published content. Here are the four new rules of quality that publishers must obey to flourish. The biggest difference between the old and new definitions of quality are who’s doing the judging. In the era of Publishing 1.0, when production costs were high, alternatives low and time ample, the editor deemed something quality or not. But today, content isn’t scarce at all—in fact, it is in oversupply. And it is the audience that judges quality directly, dozens of times per day.

So, according to the audience, what is quality?  It comes down to these four characteristics:

—Relevance. Read the rest of this entry »

Huffington Post Goes Local – And Gets Creative

23 Feb
2010

by Ben Elowitz

Over the last several weeks, I’ve heard executives from News Corp, Yahoo, and AOL who all share one thing on their minds:  they are loco for local.  And they all have the same local challenge:  howto get their hands on content all over the map, without having to pay through the nose.
Student WritersThe problem with local publishing is that while strategic interest from the media companies is high, audiences are sub-scale, and monetization is just starting to pay off.  Publishers can’t afford a big investment in a traditional staff for individual online markets that may not be able to afford even a dedicated writer.

Enter creativity.  Just because you can’t pay big bucks doesn’t mean you can’t make a great employment proposition. The Huffington Post, always happy to defy traditional rules, is taking a bold approach.  Their entry into local markets via college workforces offers a number of great ideas in sourcing talent and content in new, creative ways that can attract great contributions who don’t fit the old mold.

  • Non-traditional talent. Talent comes in all forms.  If HuffPo can train and nurture the talent, and provide editorial oversight to ensure quality of work, non-traditional talent can be made to be effective.  They won’t be the same as professionals, but that doesn’t mean they won’t create content the audience will value.
  • Invest, don’t just pay. Investing is about more than cash payments.  Pay in training, education, support.  Salary pays while you have the job and then it’s done, but real-life experience and resume credentialers pay back for a lifetime.
  • Provide high-value, low-cost resources. Get these publications using a Huffington Post-provided platform.  It’s near-zero incremental cost for HuffPo, but a good platform provides a ton of value for the local franchises.
  • Make them successful. Huffington Post can provide not only a platform, but assets that students and individual local publications would have a near-impossible time replicating on their own.  Network effects, search engine love, and syndication all come easy to HuffPo and
  • Create an opportunity path. Creating a reward system path via their citizen journalism unit can also motivate participants to give their very best to get exclusive access and advancement opportunities.

Bundling enough of these benefits together makes this compelling for students to invest themselves into.  And for HuffPo, all of these offerings are high value/low cost, so they are affordable.

Who will this idea inspire?  I’d love to see some of the more traditional publishing houses and newspapers follow suit with their own creative approach to local.


top