Turner Broadcasting Takes the Think Small Approach
If you have been reading the SoCon07 unconference posts, you will know the premise is that the audience is collectively smarter than the panelists. I just got the first report on who is attending the Feb. 9-10 event. Here is one name: Mark Chernesky – Web Development Director for Turner Broadcasting. Not a panelist, an audience member. Now read this from a Wall Street Journal article:
ATLANTA — Under founder Ted Turner, Turner Broadcasting built its name making risky bets on everything from its cable “superstation” to a 24-hour news network. Today, the freshness of those concepts has faded, and the company is part of media giant Time Warner Inc. But Turner’s innovative spirit lives on, especially on the Internet.
Time Inc. has launched a number of failed sites out of its magazines (and some, like Office Pirates, from scratch) and AOL has had only mixed results with its content plays. With less fanfare, however, Turner has developed two of the top Web sites in all of Time Warner: CNN and CNN/Money, a joint venture with Time Inc. Atlanta is no Silicon Valley, but being away from the glare hasn’t hurt the venture…
In recent months, the team has launched ACC Select, a subscription site which airs Atlantic Coast Conference basketball games along with other college sports; CNN Pipeline, a subscription-based online news video service; and another such service, Very Funny Ads, which shows humorous television commercials. This month, the company plans to launch SuperDeluxe, a site with original short-form comedy clips….
…they’re thinking small. “Not all of these sites are going to generate five million unique visitors a month,” (Turner Entertainment Group President Mark) Lazarus says. “But if we can build a few businesses to get to that point, then we’re doing pretty well. Our thinking is that it’s OK to have a few midsize businesses.” Turner expects total Web revenue to grow about 30% annually on average through 2010.
So that is one tip.
Plus for reading so deep into this post you get extra credit: Since I am a co-host for SoCon07, here is an insider’s tip. Register now or get shut out. We haven’t done much promotion and already 44 people have signed up. Jeff Haynie, who built the SoCon07 website, projects in two weeks we will have 156 people registered. And we are now thinking of closing off registrations at 200.
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