DISQUS

VentureBeat: Request: Your input on VentureBeat’s digital media expansion. And a party next week.

  • Greg Lanz · 1 year ago
    Greg Lanz here..., VP of Sales at Wikia.

    With the explosion of UGC communities, like Wikia, it would be great to learn more how brand advertisers and their agencies are looking to engage with these communities beyond traditional display advertising.

    UGC communities cover a broad spectrum of opportunity and risk for advertisers. Larger agencies are re-organizing their digital teams to address these fast growing communities.

    Thanks and I hope to be invited to the party :)

    -Greg

    P.S. If possible, please include an invite for Wikia's CEO, Gil Penchina (gil@wikia.com).
  • Michael Zerman · 1 year ago
    PLEASE DONT publish my email address if possible - public comments always result in more spam!!

    <<<<<>>>>

    It's the writers and contributors that are important, much more so than the focus of your mag. The focus will be variable and changing, depending on market conditions, current fads and more importantly souces of ad and circulation revenue.

    But the writers are what will get the readership or viewership to the site. People come to intelligent sites for analysis of ideas, discussion about objects and services, and most importantly good writing. Whatever "good" is. For example, Merc News has had many terrific writers, (Dan, Dean, etc); there are locals from non-USA backgrounds who've also setup new ventures around inovation and media, such as Tom Foremski at Silicon Valley Watcher; and the team at BusinessWeek are very strong.

    Revenue is the problem, and profitable revenue is the really big problem. Tom's solution looks problematic to me, as his recently-launched video lounge seems much more like a client's PR outlet, rather than a journalist or publisher's vision.

    So my two bob's worth (Aussie vernacular) is to keep church and state well separated (ie, revenue generation programs VS editorial content), give your writers a long leash, be sceptical of startups and boosters, and use external technical expertise to analyse "new ventures". Coz we don't need another two hundred search startups being written about.

    It's a long way from Adelaide to Frisco, so I wish you all the best with the venture, and have a grand bash.

    Michael Zerman
    Adelaide, AUSTRALIA
  • John McNerney · 1 year ago
    We have built a digital music download business. In doing so we continually search for relevant pieces of early adopter phase information and of course curent marketing efforts by various companies. As you state, and correctly, there is a noticeable vaccuum present when it comes to how the world will buy its music and how those sites will interact. The digital music market including mobile phones has grown dynamically to $809 million in 2007 but yet very little is reported about sales numbers, marketing efforts, technologies, and investors. Bravo to your company for recognizing the vaccuum. Break a leg!
    John in Houston