Yahoo Video Strategy Take Two: Finding Audiences First, Programming Second
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has been winding down its “experiments” in online video over the past few years. On Monday, the portal company will unveil the details of its new video strategy, which execs tell NYT will be focused on building programs for specific audiences instead trying to gather viewers after the fact. Sibyl Goldman, the head of entertainment for Yahoo, refers to the Terry Semel era video attempts as too grounded in the “TV mindset” or a “one-way model.” It recently killed one of its video holdovers, The 9, and has been slowly growing an audience for its TV recap daily short, Primetime in No Time. Yahoo claims the program garners 400,000 daily streams.
More recently, Yahoo has created the celebrity mom series Spotlight to Nightlight. The concept came after insurance company State Farm told the company it was looking for a way to connect with a female audience.
Trying to one-up Hollywood was a disaster, Trip Chowdhry, a senior analyst for Global Equities Research, tells the NYT. By scaling back its entertainment ambitions and thinking about how it can use its strengths — pulling together search and traffic data — it could match advertiser and viewer interests in a more profitable way. The move comes as portal rival AOL (NYSE: TWX) has also been making some changes to its strategy over the past year, with a fewer attempts at high profile programming like the Mark Burnett Gold Rush game show and more niche websites and blogs.
Great idea. Why has it taken nearly 2 years after Semel's departure to figure this out? Because instead of bringing in Carol Bartz or some executive with some actual talent, Jerry Yang decided he was the only one to lead the company out of the mess it was in. Slow moving, indecisive, lower case jerry took over. Ask shareholders or anyone who was laid off during his reign how that went. Or ask any current employees not too terrified of losing their jobs to tell you the truth.