Week of April 3, 2006

The New York Times Revamps Its Website

Monday, April 3, 2006

We'll be covering this in more detail in our Pollack Media Confidential newsletter, but, in short, the New York Times has revamped its website to include many more web-centric features, like multimedia, tabs, lists of most-blogged and most-searched stories. It will soon launch a "MyNYT" section for individual users to aggregate their own news by interest.

Silver Social Networking

Tuesday, April 4, 2006

Social networking is getting a large amount of press as the engine that is driving Web 2.0. While youth-dominant MySpace is getting the most press, look for social networking to move into all demographic and social groups. One example this week is Bertalsmann, whose Direct Group, a series of book, CD, and DVD clubs for seniors, is looking to turn its user base of 35 million users into a social network.

BBC Appoints US Digital Head

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Few companies are as aggressive as the BBC in the digital space. They have moved even further in that direction by naming a head of digital for BBC America, Gill Pritchard. Pritchard will be working on building new revenue streams for all BBC products across distribution channels.

A Recurring Debate: Does Podcasting Undercut Core Distribution?

Thursday, April 6, 2006

One of the key trends mentioned in our New Media Landscape report (available via hq@pollackmedia.com) is the rise of the Shooting Star, or an independent content creator which surpasses even the hits delivered by traditional media outlets.

Divergence From Major League Baseball

Friday, April 7, 2006

Major League Baseball has been aggressive in the new media space, extending the MLB online expertise beyond simply distributing baseball games. The latest is their deal with Signatures Network, which will allow the music marketing and licensing firm the MLB Internet backbone to expand its products and presence.

The interesting part of this is that this is not a brand extension of MLB. This is MLB leveraging their strong online presence to create a joint venture that will bring them in extra revenue.