Yahoo is canceling "Richard Bangs Adventures" only a year after launching the video travelogue as one of its first original shows. A Yahoo spokesman said that the program, featuring veteran explorer and travel author Bangs, had failed to build "a large and loyal audience" because of the roughly month-long gaps between new installments. During its run starting last October, "Adventures" drew only about 500,000 unique visitors a month--well below the 1 million-user threshold to be counted by Nielsen//NetRatings. In an interview earlier this month, Yahoo News General Manager Neil Budde indicated that the future of the show was uncertain. The demise of "Adventures" reflects a broader decision by Yahoo to pull back on ambitious original projects in favor of a greater emphasis on adapting third-party media and user-generated content. Yahoo, however, remains committed to "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone," the other original show it introduced last year. That series, in which backpack journalist Sites reports from war zones around the world, has attracted an audience about twice that of "Adventures." The Sites show also features a steadier flow of video reports than does the Bangs program. Yahoo is expected to bring Sites back to the United States for the upcoming season of the "Hot Zone." Yahoo had hoped at one time that such original programming would differentiate it from competitors such as Google and MSN. But the explosion of user-created content on sites such as YouTube and MySpace has made it even more difficult for original new programs to stand out on the Web. "That's what I think we learned here," said the Yahoo spokesman. "With ['Adventures'] publishing schedule it was difficult for an audience to be engaged on an ongoing basis." The average time spent per visitor on the site was also only about three minutes, according to comScore Media Metrix. Bangs has previously worked with MSNBC and MSN, creating similar material for about nine years prior to joining Yahoo. He has also published countless magazine pieces, 14 books, and several documentaries--and co-directed the IMAX film "Mystery of the Nile." For his Yahoo show, Bangs had most recently mounted an expedition to Bosnia. The Yahoo spokesman said that while the company would necessarily seek to replace "Adventures" with another show, its cancellation would free up staff to work on existing and future projects.
Hoping to boost its new video portal, AOL Thursday started selling downloads of full-length movies from four studios--20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. Initially, AOL will sell several hundred digital movies, ranging in price from $9.99 to $19.99. At launch, films available for purchase included "Spider Man 2," "Hitch," "Hostel," and "Black Hawk Down." Fred McIntyre, vice president of AOL Video, said the company intends to pursue more deals with movie studios as it continues to build out its video portal, which officially launched earlier this month. "Our goal is to be the place that people think about when they want to find video online," McIntyre said. AOL's entry into digital film sales comes as companies are fiercely competing for dominance in online video. Earlier this week, rival downloading site Guba slashed prices to $9.99 for new releases. Also, Wednesday Sony said it bolstered its foothold in online video with the purchase of video-sharing site Grouper Networks for $65 million. In addition to selling downloadable movies, AOL is adding several TV programs to its roster of shows available for sell or ad-supported viewing. Through a deal with Fox Entertainment Group, AOL will offer paid downloads of a host of TV shows including "24," "Prison Break," "Bones," and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." AOL also now is streaming ad-supported versions of the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment TV shows including "Charlie's Angels," "Starsky & Hutch," and "SWAT." Discover Financial Services has signed on as the exclusive sponsor of the video portal through the end of September; the company is promoting the Discover credit card.
Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is searching for a firm to manage his campaign's Web site for the upcoming election--and coming up short. So far, two Democratic Web site consultants have turned down the campaign because they don't want to cross party lines. Lieberman, who recently lost the Democratic primary for Senate to challenger Ned Lamont, is now running as an Independent. Lieberman's campaign did not return calls for comment. Blue State Digital, an online communications consultancy, was approached by Lieberman's campaign to run the Web site, Joe2006.com, but declined by e-mail, stating, "Thank you for your inquiry about Blue State Digital's technology services. Unfortunately, we cannot be of service to the Lieberman campaign. We work exclusively with Democratic candidates." Joe Rospars, co-founder of Blue State Digital, also said that there would be a conflict of interest in running Lieberman's Joe2006.com Web site, because they have already been contracted by Ned Lamont's campaign. "We've been with Ned Lamont since the beginning, we've been his Web vendor, so it's puzzling why they would call us," he said. Lamont's campaign Web site blog also reported that a second Democratic online political advertising firm and campaign site manager, PlusThree, declined to work on Lieberman's Web site. PlusThree did not return calls for comment. Lieberman's campaign Web site suffered a critical failure in the last days of his primary race, but the Senator's campaign indicated that it wanted to beef up its Web efforts for the general election. Some Democrats have criticized Lieberman for his decision to run in the general election, arguing that he should stand aside for Lamont to run against Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger. Political consultant Michael Bassik, who works with the Democratic firm MHSC Partners, said consultancies often align themselves along party lines. "Lieberman is running as an Independent, so there's not much he can do to convince some of the larger Democratic technology firms to help him out," he said. "This isn't just sound business strategy, it's testament to our ideals and beliefs that the values of the Democratic party are the values we will fight for. Lieberman was once a Democrat, but now he is not." Eric Porres, co-founder of political online advertising firm Pericles Consulting, said that not all political consultancies operate along partisan lines. "When we started Pericles Consulting, we always said that we would work for the 'green' party--whomever was interested in parting with some green would be the group that we would work with," he said. "In our case, Republicans jumped first, and then we were automatically labeled a 'Republican firm.'" Porres added that Pericles would be willing to cross party lines and work for Lieberman. "The bottom line is that the companies balking at Lieberman's campaign show a typically myopic way of viewing business in the face of politics," he said. "Put another way, we'd be happy to work with Joe Lieberman." One firm, Media Mezcla LLC, which produces Campaign Engine, a Web site management platform, has been running online ads highlighting Lieberman's site outage as a way of drumming up business. "If Joe Lieberman had used Campaign Engine, his site would still be up," the ad reads. Would Media Mezcla work for Lieberman's independent campaign if approached? "My firm works with Democrats and progressive candidates," said President Ben Schaffer. "Joe Lieberman is neither."
Ad revenue for business-to-business publications grew 1 percent in the 12 months ending this June, the Business Information Network said Thursday. During this period, print ads were flat, while online advertising posted 20 percent growth and events saw 6 percent growth, compared to last year. The leading categories for B-to-B revenue growth were "building, engineering and construction," which jumped about 8 percent--followed by "automotive" and "resources, environment, and utility," which both grew about 7.9 percent. Mirroring the broader market, the big winner in terms of delivery was the Internet--a development that seems to confirm two recent reports: a study by Forrester Research performed for American Business Media, called "The B2B Digital Marketing Shift," and a study by Harris Interactive. Harris reported that 49 percent of business executives said a B-to-B Web site led them to recommend a product to their organization, and 35 percent said they had made business purchases online. Harris based its report on a survey of 588 executives in 21 different business areas. The Internet appears to work best in conjunction with trade shows, noted the Harris study. Seventy-seven percent of Harris respondents said trade shows drove them to find more information about products or services on the Internet. Plus, direct personal contact appears to be the most effective means of reaching executives. According to Harris, 70 percent of the study respondents said interactions with company reps at industry functions caused them to make or recommend a purchase to their company.
Online ad spending will climb to $11.6 billion internationally this year--marking a growth rate of 35 percent, predicted Merrill Lynch in a new report Thursday. Previously, the brokerage house had forecast 33 percent growth for the year. For 2007, the international online ad spend is projected to climb to $14.5 billion, marking 24 percent growth; the prior estimate called for 25 percent growth. By country, Merrill Lynch predicts that China will show the highest growth in online ad spending this year--50 percent. The United Kingdom comes in second (46.4 percent), followed by France (45 percent), Australia (42.6 percent), South Korea (30.5 percent) and Japan (30 percent). The brokerage house also examined agencies and Internet companies that stood to gain from international growth. aQuantive--which recently acquired Neue Digitale in Germany and Amnesia in Australia--was seen as especially likely to do well outside the United States. "We believe they will be one of the leading players to capture the strong growth abroad," stated the report. Merrill Lynch also was bullish on Google's international prospects, stating that the search giant has more than a 70 percent market share in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy--three key markets in Europe. Yahoo didn't get as positive a report, with Merrill Lynch predicting that Yahoo's share of international advertising will drop from 11 percent in 2005 to 10 percent this year. The brokerage house also said that Omnicom's prospects for international growth looked good. Omnicom, the report stated, "has a strong presence internationally that should enable the company to expand its international online services abroad as well as to capture this growth."