Interview: People.com's Golin, Hauser: Being More Aggressive By Being Soft; Games Channel Introduced
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Celebrity-oriented news sites have grown substantially over the past year*comScore* says the category's traffic has grown 31 percent from May 2007 to May 2008. So while the space has been identified with TMZ, Gawker and PerezHilton, which tend to zero in on the more sordid aspects of the rich and famous, People.com editor Mark Golin and Fran Hauser, People Digital's president, insist that their site's softer touch not only resonates with readers more, but it keeps advertisers open to new initiatives as well. Note: Hauser is speaking at our EconCeleb conference later this month in Hollywood, talking about, what else, celebrity content and transforming the brand into digital platforms.
-- Games People.com plays: One of the new initiatives that People.com unveiled this past week is its new Games channel. Launching with six games, such as Celebrity Trivia, Hollywood Hangman, Love Connection and other fun revolving around entertainment, the channel is part of what Golin and Hauser say is a key part of the site's growth strategy. Hauser: "We've built five channels over the last two years. When I came to People.com [in January 2006 as GM] it was only news and photos. Since then, we have built out five separate channels: StyleWatch, TV Watch, Video, archives and a celebrity database. And now we have Games." The addition of the new channelsalong with greater use of search engine optimization and promotion of its RSS feedshave given People.com 9.2 million monthly uniques (according to May comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) numbers), says Hauser. Golin adds: "Look at the whole entertainment category grew by 31 percent year-over-year. But People.com grew 60 percent."
-- Keeping it positive: Aside from creating new channels in-house, People.com is also looking for outside sites to buy. Just over a month ago, People.com bought CelebrityBabyBlog. Before making the purchase, Golin says People.com looked at roughly 700 other sites. It was important that the tone and spirit of the site fit with People.com's less aggressive approach to covering celebrities, he says. Golin: "Our readers like the good news about a birth and like to celebrate with the stars. Last year, there was a lot of high drama in celebrity news; people shaving their heads, showing up naked in photos, going to rehab. We did a fast look at what the top pageviews for stories were in 2007 and all the top stories were negative ones. This year, the top stories are babies and weddings and the positive stories are doing an average of three times better than the top ones last year."
-- Acquisition strategy: Aside from the traffic, People.com views CBB as a good lure for advertisers looking to reach young moms. Hauser: "That's a highly attractive vertical for us. So the ultimate question we ask when we consider an acquisition like this is: can we monetize it? Is this going to break a new advertising category for us? That's exactly what this does. CBB was a small acquisition, but it checked off a lot of boxes for us. So we are actively looking at other sites to purchase, and we're keeping that criteria top of mind. We're also focusing on technology. Is there a website that would add a meaningful technology appliction to the site, something that would make People.com more useful? Still, we're just looking right now, nothing's imminent." More from Golin and Hauser after the jump.
-- Stop the presses: No People-backed ad net: With seemingly every traditional media company having started or about to start a vertical ad network, it's worth noting that People.com has no plans in that area. Hauser says they don't see a need for one, because "we generate so many ad impressions on People.com already over 1 billion every night so we don't need more inventory. If we found ourselves in a situation where we felt we needed more inventory, we would bring more sites in and rep them. But right now, there's no point." Hauser adds that People.com's ad revenues are doing pretty well, too, claiming that the site's revs are up 112 percent over last year, though she declines to offer specific amounts.
-- Ad alliance with AOL's Platform-A: One other reason People.com doesn't need an ad network: it's begun talking with marketers about selling packages with Time Warner sibling, AOL's Platform-A (NYSE: TWX). Hauser: "We've had an existing traffic partnership [with AOL] for last few years. On the Ad side, we've approached a few of our key clients and are talking to them about programs that would include People.com and Platform-A. What's really nice about that is, we complement each other really well. People.com offers the premium brand play, while Platform-A offers significant reach and granular targeting." So far, no deals in the works yet, but Hauser calls the feedback she's received "promising."
By David Kaplan