MediaFinder New Media Report

Kudos for Patrick Phillips, I Want Media (iwantmedia.com, Twitter hashtag: #iwm), and NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute in conjunction with Internet Week New York, for a terrific panel on New Media: Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post; Dan Abrams, NBC News, Mediaite: Cindi Leive, Glamour; David Eun, AOL Media; James Pitaro, Yahoo Media; Josh Cohen, Google News; Jonathan Geller, Genius Boy Report.

Arianna, due to her Greek origins, would not predict the future of her site (it is expected to surpass the New York Times soon) except to say that paywalls would not work. She challenged Rupert Murdoch to erect them—more users for her and other news sites, such as AOL. The Huffington Post does not reward journalists on traffic, but on maintaining the brand and its engagement with audience. HuffPo has many verticals such as the college channel (80 colleges affiliated) and the Shine network for women, in partnership with Yahoo and Glamour.

Glamour had many trials and errors before striking a balance with the print and online products. The print audience grew as the online world grew. Starting with 12 million print and 300,000 online; it now has 3 million online users, and Cindi Leive looks forward to the iPad app, citing Wired’s success. Users like to talk to Glamour’s experts and each other.

Dan Abrams, with his background in TV, sees no conflict with the internet. He even owns a restaurant (The Lion, in the Village). The answer is exclusive and/or unique data. The internet is the Wild West, and the future of the media is the website.

Jonathan “Boy Genius” Geller, had a passion for things mobile at an early age. Started his site at 17 and sold it to mail.com at age 22. Now envisions expansion to all things tech with many more resources. Looks to capitalize on apps, premiums, etc.

AOL is a multi-billion-dollar start-around company looking to combine high quality digital content with user relationships and user contributions. Started seed.com, 500 journalists and editors to produce, edit, and distribute content. Eighty percent of articles are produced in-house. Hiring hundreds more journalists. Pay scale not clear.

Yahoo is developing vertical news networks. Started with Yahoo Sports (grew from 12 million to 40 million users) and is developing other verticals such as news, entertainment. Purchased Associated Content with 300,000 contributors to draw upon. Utilizes pro/am concept (see Paid Content article).

Google News does not create news, it “discovers” it. It is not a “technologically enabled media company.” It sends lots of traffic to news sites. If websites want to block Google, it’s easy to do but not in their best interests. Google helps companies leverage the tech platforms.

What about making money?

Ad money will continue to flow from offline to online, Google says.
The inefficiencies of buying online ads now will be resolved in future.
The benefits of matching ads to content via behavior, etc., will vastly improve - ads will actually add to a user’s experience. (The right ad at the right time to the right people.)

Trish Hagood, MediaFinder.com