CBS Combines NY Station Sites, More Local Roll-Ups To Come
- by Erik Sass @eriksass1, August 4, 2010
CBS is rolling up all of the Web sites for its New York City broadcast properties, including TV and radio stations, into a single mega-site combining news and lifestyle content from WCBS-TV, WCBS-AM, WINS-AM and WFAN-AM.
The move, announced during CBS Corp.'s second-quarter earnings conference call, could be the first of many such mergers of CBS local station Web sites in markets around the country.
The local super-site intends to increase the scale and efficiency of CBS Web operations by combining audiences for the individual sites. It will also boost audience engagement with online and broadcast channels alike by exposing visitors to new content they might not otherwise see or hear from 1010 WINS and WCBS-AM, all-news stations; WFAN, an all-sports station; and WCBS-TV (Channel 2), which has lifestyle, entertainment, and local news.
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The new site, called www.CBSNewYork.com, is intended to be a true local hub for New Yorkers, with resources including event listings and local shopping discounts. Currently in Beta mode, it is scheduled to officially launch around Labor Day. CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said the model will eventually be applied to other CBS local markets nationwide.
The move marks a significant step in the evolution of broadcast TV and radio Web strategy.
Over the last few years, big broadcast groups like Clear Channel and CBS Corp. have worked to create networks composed of Web sites for individual stations alongside national portals like IHeartRadio.com, which allow on-demand listening and provide links to the station Web sites.
The CBS super-site falls somewhere in between these approaches, by aggregating content from different stations at the local level.
This may be one of the worst ideas yet. As a frequent visitor to 1010WINS for my news and WFAN for my sports, I find the new combined site to be ridiculously user unfriendly. So much so, that I have gotten rid of both bookmarks and will look elsewhere for my NY news and sports online. Incredible. The new combo site makes for a totally unpleasant experience. I guess just another example of overthinking things and/or some new hire who felt he or she had to do "something" to impress the boss. Awful. They should go back to individual websites immediately. I can't see how they will squeeze more ad dollars out of this scenario.