BtoB Media Business - March 2008 - (Page 23)

Online Video vrooms Several factors are pushing online into the mainstream for business publishers BY MARIE GRIFFIN B roadband-delivered video is going mainstream in b-to-b media. Recent months have seen the launches of BuildTV from Hanley Wood, Jobson Medical Information’s Vision Monday Web TV and others. Even small and midsize media companies, such as Lebhar-Friedman, are getting into online TV. Video is not new to business media sites, of course, but the more universal adoption of video is being driven by many factors, publishers say. These include the ready availability of equipment and outsourced services that make it easier and less costly to use video; more advertisers looking for video opportunities; the desire of publishers to beat, or at least keep up with, their media competition; and the presence of staffs within media companies that are ready and itching to get started. Alec Dann, general manager-business media online at Hanley Wood Business Media, said, “More tools are being made available to publishers that make video less of a headache to manage. Vendors are not only making it easier to manage the content but also to place the pre-roll and post-roll ads advertisers expect to run with video.” Bill Scott, VP-group publisher of Jobson’s Retail Optical Group, said his group jumped into video because it could manage the costs and get to market quickly by building the video player and other capabilities in-house. Vision Monday advertisers indirectly prompted the title’s move into TV. “At trade shows, we noticed that many of our existing advertisers were showing videos,” Scott said. “We asked them what other plans they had for the video, and they said, ‘We don’t have anywhere else to use it.’ ” Best of all, Scott said, “Many of our customers don’t use their regular advertising budget for video, so this is a way to create a new revenue stream that doesn’t cannibalize our existing business.” About a year ago, Penton Media launched EngineeringTV, a joint venture of its Electronic Design Group and Machine Design Group. “We had done some experimenting with video at trade shows, so we wanted to take the next step with paying sponsors,” said Bill Baumann, group publisher of the Electronic Design Group. “Our idea in our first year, 2007, was to get two sponsors for two programs a week, and we were fully sponsored from Day 1,” Baumann said. “This year, we planned to expand to four days a week with two additional sponsors, but one company bought both slots, so, again, we were sold out from the start.” With revenue from the outset, the two groups were able to devote staff to EngineeringTV. “Last year, we dedicated one producer and one programmer, and we used the editors in chief for Machine Design and Electronic Design to oversee the content,” he said. To handle twice the amount of programming on EngineeringTV this year, Penton added a second producer. “If you’re going to do video, you need to add technology people for the camerawork, the production, the editing and all that,” Baumann said. At Lebhar-Friedman, editors drove the launches of Drug Store News TV, Retailing Today TV and Home Channel News TV, said Randall Friedman, VP-group publisher of the three titles. Editors identified trade shows and other industry events as natural venues for video, and they went to the sales side to line up sponsors to get the programs started. “We knew video would be an opportunistic buy for the advertisers, so we put an emphasis on affordability,” Friedman said. Then, because many suppliers in these industries don’t have video advertising prepared, “we did Q&As at their show booths.” Lebhar-Friedman’s e-media team built video players and “we hosted the video ourselves,” Friedman noted. But the real cost-efficiencies came, first, from staff editors willing to do the work themselves and, second, from some untapped in-house talent, he said. “We were lucky,” he said. “One of our e-media people is also a weekend filmmaker. So we flew him and his partner to the events, and all we had to pay for was their T&E and their time.” ONLINE ‘Variety’ debuts social network ‘The Biz’ R eflecting the growing influence of Web 2.0 on b-to-b markets, Variety last month launched The Biz, a social network that lets entertainment and media professionals network, pitch products, exchange ideas and search for jobs. The site (www.variety.com/thebiz) also provides a venue for employers to recruit talent and target candidates by specific interests and skills. Users will soon be able to upload video to the site. “The entertainment industry is rooted in social networking, and [The Biz] is our attempt to make the process easier,” said Brian Gott, associate publisher of Variety. The site was developed in association with Jobster, which builds online career networks. The Biz is an outgrowth of Variety Careers, which launched in 2005. “We quickly realized there was much more we can do in connecting users to decision-makers in our industry,” Gott said. “The intent is to put [users] in touch with HR execs at the studios, headhunters or personnel at the independent film companies.” Advertisements that previously ran on Variety Career are now running on The Biz, including messaging from Discovery Network, Fox and Nickelodeon. As the Web site develops and more specific demographics become available, marketers will be able to better pinpoint their ads, Gott said. For business publishers, social networks have quickly emerged as an important component in their online platforms. The Financial Times last month introduced an exclusive membership forum (http://www.ftexecutiveforums.com/technology) for media and technology executives to be able to make and maintain contact with peers in the digital, new media, mobile and telecom sectors. — Matthew Schwartz mediabusinessonline.com | March 2008 | Media Business | 23 http://www.variety.com/thebiz http://www.ftexecutiveforums.com/technology http://mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - March 2008

BtoB Media Business - March 2008
Contents
Is Reed's Move a Game Changer?
Upfront: ABM honors McCracken, Thompson and Verdon
Cover Story: Business Data Sales Provide Steady Revenue
Audience Development
Special Report: Circulation Executives gain a Higher Profile
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Online
Video Goes Mainstream
Events
Production
People
Benchmarks
Publisher Rankings
Endnote: Information Helps Build Client Relationships

BtoB Media Business - March 2008

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