• by February 3, 2005

Sites We Love

This month, OMMA offers a snapshot of the online publishers, portals, and networks that we believe stand out editorially in their respective categories. They offer readers a mother lode of rich and diverse content on a consistent basis. And in the realm of advertising, they've shown leadership and innovation in the use of new ad formats, while striking a delicate balance between readers' and advertisers' needs.

We chose five online destinations in 10 self-created categories and in most cases, featured a single site that exemplified a unique blend of editorial content, as well as solid integration of advertising. Additional sites were mentioned as leaders in each category. While we assessed online traffic and advertising revenues, we didn't allow these factors to wholly influence us.

Ultimately, we came up with a mix of criteria and made our choices based, in some cases, on highly subjective observations and experiences.

As I am increasingly rating and assessing things these days, I must offer the following qualification: This was not a scientific process! Think of it more in the vein of Esquire's "Women We Love" issue devoid of the sexual innuendo and imagery, well, almost devoid of it. Without further ado then...

business & financial

CBS Market- Watch.com

Packs innovative online advertising and stellar editorial

A truly great business news source is first and foremost a great news source. CBS MarketWatch.com distinguishes itself by breaking major stories online each day even before the major cable outlets and newspapers.

MarketWatch, which at press time was set to be acquired by business and financial news powerhouse Dow Jones & Co., puts a business/investment lens on real-time reporting.

We can only hope that its unique approach will be strengthened by the pending acquisition. Known among advertisers for pioneering interactive ad formats like in-page rich media, front page takeovers, and dayparting, MarketWatch is now among the first of online publishers to seek an end to insidious ad clutter.

Last fall, a front page redesign widened the site's canvas by 25 percent and replaced a top ad banner with editorial teasers to create a singe display space.

"Less is more," says Scot McLernon, executive vice president of sales and marketing at MarketWatch. Pairing a takeover introductory ad with a large, single placement on the front page has proven successful because "it is an arena to make a bigger statement," McLernon notes.

MarketWatch is unique among online publishers as an easy to read statement accompanies home page takeover ads. For example, an "About this ad" statement appears that explains that the preceding ad was a message from a sponsor that helps MarketWatch bring readers financial news and information. It suggests that readers click on the links provided to proceed directly to the home page. It just doesn't get more classy than that. MarketWatch has a host of great premium products too.

Forbes.com has carefully balanced the needs of advertisers and readers. It bowed to editorial independence last year when it ended an experiment that embedded text ad links in articles. Forbes.com's money-back brand awareness and ad effectiveness guarantees were bold moves, and the addition of new lifestyle content and feature packages are compelling reads.

BusinessWeek Online has made significant strides, and Fortune.com casts an increasingly critical eye on financial coverage. For advertisers who want to get behind a great utility, SmartMoney.com's suite of financial tools and calculators remain unrivaled. Steve Smith

entertainment

E! Online

Satisfying our insatiable appetite for gossip and the glitterati E! Online satisfies the insatiable appetite of the gossip lover in all of us. Featuring up-to-the-minute entertainment news, features, reviews, games, and live event coverage straight from the red carpet, E! Online is chock-full with intriguing and eye-popping editorial, leaving the user giddy with anticipation as to what to check out first.

Launched in 1996, the site has received numerous accolades as one of the most popular entertainment Web sites on the Web. More than 2 million unique users visited the site as of November 2004, according to comScore Media Metrix. As we enter the star-studded award season, traffic figures are sure to soar as users flock to the site to check out the fashion pages even without Joan and Melissa Rivers - who jumped ship to the TV Guide properties - for the low-down on the "best- and worst-dressed" stars. One of the site's fun features is "The Six Pack," a stat-sheet that tracks the top six requested celebrities daily and is updated on an hourly basis.

With the sheer amount of editorial found on the site, some might wonder where in the world advertising fits in. But advertising opportunities abound from nearly every angle, including in-stream video advertising, movie trailers, and intriguing pop-up ads that encourage even the most stubborn surfer to take a deeper look.

And as with any ad-supported cable network site, E! Online offers a number of integrated advertising opportunities with E! Cable Network, that advertisers such as Turning Leaf, Polaroid, Crest, and Dos Equis have taken advantage of in recent months.

Other entertainment sites capturing our attention in the entertainment category included EntertainmentWeekly.com, People.com, Yahoo! Entertainment/ Movies, and entertainment insider IMDB.com, a favorite among hard-core movie fans. EntertainmentWeekly.com is a lot easier to read than its magazine counterpart, which sports a confused, catalog-like redesign. Multimedia features are critically important in this category and rivals would do well to take a page from Yahoo! and E! Online. Nothing moves people like Paris Hilton's latest boy-toy. Tricia Despres

sports

ESPN.com

Cross-platform synergy in a fan- and advertiser-friendly package For advertisers and sports fans alike, ESPN.com is that rare example of a cross-platform dream fulfilled. The site highlights the best of the brand's offline audio and video coverage and delivers the best real-time sports reporting in the business. This is surround-session content branding as God intended it.

ESPN is a leader in crafting unique editorial content that integrates the Web, TV, radio, print, events, wireless, and other forms of media. It's all delivered with engaging graphics and sound virtually any way a fan wants to experience it.

While ESPN.com's ESPN Motion is limited by a proprietary plug-in and pre-caching, it delivers extraordinarily high quality video to 1.5 million users a month and a bevy of loyal advertisers like Sony and American Express who benefit from high-resolution, glitch-free executions of their pre-roll advertising. An investment in Web-exclusive content like the new animated, 11-episode "Sports Guy" series makes ESPN.com much more than a drive-by for scores and the occasional column; it brings online the whole ESPN sports entertainment gestalt. We anticipate more original content on ESPN.com, so stay tuned. Key competitor SI.com also distinguished itself last year by fully integrating print and Web staffs for stronger daily editorial coverage that culminated in breaking some major Olympics stories online.

MSN is helping FoxSports Online lure traffic; FoxSports on MSN racked up 11.4 million unique visitors as of November 2004, according to comScore Media Metrix. MSN carried ESPN.com content on its network until June 30, 2004.

In this hyper-competitive category, we especially admire how CBS SportsLine has carved a lucrative niche for itself and advertisers by dominating the fantasy sports league genre and maintaining extraordinary visitor hangout times.

Keep your eye on Turner Sports Interactive's NASCAR.com, which wraps creative and impartial editorial in the sports league's brand to deliver 5 million monthly uniques, according to comScore data. Steve Smith

gaming

GameSpot

The place where gamers go to know and escape Interactive entertainment is on a tear. Total gaming industry revenues surpassed domestic U.S. box office sales for the first time last year, hitting $10 billion and nearly $1.5 billion more than 2004 revenues for the online ad market in the United States.

Online publishers, which generate almost all of their revenue from selling advertising, are among the beneficiaries of the video game boom. GameSpot, the vast gaming community that resides within the CNET.com network, pulls ahead of the others with a mother lode of editorial content, free downloads and demos, cheat codes, reviews, previews, and special features. Vince Broady, GameSpot's senior vice president, says 2004 was a year of "explosive growth" for GameSpot.

"It was the first year we felt things were really solid from both an advertising and market acceptance perspective," he says.

In 2004, GameSpot's advertiser base expanded beyond video game developers. Major consumer packaged goods and entertainment industry advertisers like McDonald's and Comedy Central began advertising with the gaming portal. "Right now doing a media campaign in a game isn't easy," Broady says, but advertisers are eager to try. Overall, Broady says GameSpot's ad revenue increased 90 percent over 2003. In particular, Broady says GameSpot Trax, a targeting service launched last year, has been effective in demonstrating to marketers the value of their advertising spend. GameSpot Trax parses GameSpot's user and content data into geographic, demographic, and behavioral targets.

In 2004, GameSpot also established content partnerships with major Web portals America Online and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN. Both now feature GameSpot content in their games and entertainment sections. Electronic Arts, the largest games software publisher, also offers a dynamic gaming community and just about everything gamers want. Ross Fadner

music

Yahoo! Launch & AOL Music

Sight, sound, and motion abound in these top venues Yahoo!'s Launch and America Online's AOL Music are OMMA's top picks for editorially-driven music destination. Both venues offer music fans a wide selection of content including music videos, streaming concert events, and exclusive listening opportunities that succeed in holding our interest.

Known as a true trailblazer in online advertising, Yahoo! has established itself as a rich media partner for countless high-profile clients. Its Launch property has evolved into a virtual one-stop shop for music lovers, especially in light of last year's acquisition of MusicMatch, a recognized leader in personalized music software and services.

"Yahoo has been around long enough to build a rather strong user base over a long time frame," explains Jeff Marshall, Starcom IP's senior vice president and managing director. "The site provides a great user experience and a unique audience that has proved very intriguing to a number of our clients."

Yahoo!'s Launch racked up 21 million unique visitors in November, according to comScore Media Metrix, compared to AOL Music's 14 million for the same period. Nevertheless, AOL Music is one of AOL's most impressive programming success stories. The site's home page sports a clean, uncluttered look. Both Launch and AOL Music have attracted their fair share of advertisers eager to get in front of hip, young music fans.

AOL Music is recognized for its efforts to acquire music programming with the help of parent company Time Warner. Advertising insiders this year are eagerly awaiting programming and packaging changes across AOL's properties, including music, and look forward to more in-stream video advertising opportunities. Other sites capturing the attention of both our eyes and ears include Spin.com, Vibe.com, RollingStone.com, and the no frills site of Filter-mag.com, a favorite among hard-core music fans. Tricia Despres

news & Information

MSNBC.com

Packs a raft of video clips and content from unbeatable brands

From those cool mouse-over menus that drill deep into hundreds of headlines at the front page to a cache of NBC video clips, all free, MSNBC.com marries tech and content better than its cable TV namesake. By placing video clips of news content online each day, the site sets the standard for what a TV brand should be online. The extensive collection of video clips has also attracted the interest of advertisers interested in video advertising on a pre-roll basis.

In "Hardblogger" and Keith Olberman's "Bloggerman," MSNBC.com found the nexus between TV and the Web, personality, and an engaging immediacy. "MSNBC.com provides a look at the Web site of tomorrow," says Jeff Lanctot, vice president, media for Avenue A/Razorfish. This future certainly will include technology like MSN's new Newsbot tool, which challenges Google News head-on with a more editorially discriminating real-time feed of news from around the Web.

In fact, MSNBC.com stands out because its collection of well-packaged partner brands (Washington Post, Newsweek, Forbes, NBC News, and others) recognize how the Web replaces old media brand loyalty by aggregating best of breed sources. With traffic as of November 2004 at 24.9 million unique visitors, according to comScore Media Metrix, MSNBC.com could very well be considered a small cable operator. It's also neck-and-neck with CNN.com which had 25.2 million uniques.

Time Warner may be an old school media conglomerate but its CNN.com showed that bringing its stable of brands like People and Sports Illustrated to a news portal is appealing. Meanwhile, FoxNews.com has evolved its home page into a concise, packed news hub that's clearly trying to steal some of MSNBC.com's thunder.

Weather.com continues to impress us both with its elegant and deep content, and ad targeting that can be triggered by the weather itself. And go ahead and hate it, but DrudgeReport.com is still the place everyone checks first for the breaking headlines that will be on the "real" news sites in, well, a few minutes. Steve Smith

newspapers

NYTimes.com

The Grey Lady proves quality, brand, and size matter

NYTimes.com deserved the double-digit revenue growth it enjoyed last year, as well as its category-leading 10 million monthly unique visitors. The Grey Lady's online presence goosed the best newspaper site with relaunched travel, technology, and theater sections, and for keeping advertisers in front of readers, albeit tastefully and unobtrusively, for the most part.

Its oversized ad units combined with increasing use of full-page interstitials and in-page streaming video spots make NYTimes.com one of the most impactful and creative media buys available. Movie studios flood the channel with embedded trailers late in the week, while some clients employ combination formats like TV video spots wrapped in billboard-like static units.

"Clearly, the NYTimes.com has figured out a lot of things well," says Peter Zollman, principal of Classified Intelligence. For example, "how to target specific users or readers; how to reach an upscale audience; how to provide effective employment and real estate advertising products online; and how to use effective registration tools to reach people with information and ads they want," Zollman notes. Columnists and reporters now file regular multimedia segments, for a TV-like feel and more opportunities for pre-roll advertising. NYTimes.com says half its audience is comprised of coveted "influentials" who steer culture trends and 63 percent in one poll found ads on NYTimes.com were of a higher quality. We agree. At press time, the Times Co. was mulling whether to charge readers for heretofore free content on NYTimes.com, a risky move to be sure.

The Washington Post Co. is not to be underestimated. Late last year, it expanded its online range by absorbing Microsoft's superb Slate.com and bringing large marquee ad units to its front page. We admired WSJ.com for adding an impressive video center and offering sponsored "Open House" access for non-subscribers. The LATimes.com's layout, editorial, and classifieds section remain impressive, while USAToday.com maintained solid traffic growth last year and introduced a precision targeting ad product that marries geography with demographics for ad targeting. Online newspaper brands continue to excel, even as many print sides suffer. Steve Smith

commentary / BLOG

Slate

A brand born on the Web continues to raise the bar

There aren't too many online publications that serve up incisive commentary and critique on the issues of the day, whether they're Supreme Court decisions or movie reviews. Sure, there are newspaper sites that do an excellent job but brands born and bred purely online, they are not.

It could be argued that online publications like Slate helped lay the groundwork for bloggers by offering provocative essays on politics, culture, art, business, and practically everything else. We love Slate's "Chatterbox," "Webhead," and its arts and lifestyle coverage. Its multimedia travelogs are splendid. Having started as an experiment in online journalism and advertising eight years ago, Slate burgeoned into a must-read, developing an influential readership and a cache' that was nurtured within Microsoft Corp., despite the fact that the property never did fit into the software maker's empire. Late last year, Microsoft sold Slate to the Washington Post Co. where we believe it is sure to prosper and strike appropriate synergies with the company's other sites.

While blogs might be all the rage now, the reason they entered popular consciousness at all is due, in large measure, to Gawker and Wonkette. Both are flagships of Gawker Media, publisher of several blogs. Gawker is known for its snarky takes on the media elite and Wonkette is required reading for provincial inside-the-beltway types and the staffs of elected officials.

Salon, like Slate, one of the granddaddies of online publishing, continues to thrive despite many reports of its imminent demise. We love Salon's edginess and elegant commentary. Graphically, it is somewhat challenged.

Wired.com continues to have enormous influence not only on technology news and opinion, but other matters of societal import. The fare on Wired.com usually provides a compelling read. Take its "Sex Drive" column for example. Recent entries on the Internet porn business offered an interesting take on its dimensions and the forces at work. Tobi Elkin

technology

Cnet.com

An impressive redesign and rich content keep this site on top

A major redesign last fall underscored CNET.com's successful growth from simply the tech news destination to a more consumer-oriented, must-see destination for all digital products. Colorful and intuitive navigation offers a stack of product reviews and helpful how-tos, as well as improved access to the dozen members of the CNET Network which include GameSpot and MySimon.

For media buyers, "CNET creates an environment conducive to buying, whether it is software or office hardware or cameras," says Paul Debraccio, CEO of Interevco. "You spend time on CNET and you want to buy."

While CNET expanded its portfolio of consumer electronics advertisers in 2004, it also innovated in business-to-business, with a precisely timed and targeted rich media "Enterprise Launch" unit that guarantees exposure to 1.4 million business and information technology professionals in a week.

With the purchase of Chinese publisher ZOL and distribution partnerships with Yahoo! and NYTimes.com, among others, the brand is expanding its reach and authority well beyond an already massive 28.3 million monthly unique visitors as of November 2004, according to comScore Media Metrix. CNET has succeeded in becoming the online standard bearer of the digital consumer. In the highly evolved tech content category, mainstay TechWeb keeps things fresh with forays into the Chinese market last year and new "Pipeline" sites that were nano-targeted to precise niches, for a clear path to tech content online.

IDG stayed stylish and pertinent with sites like best-of-breed PCWorld.com and NWFusion, as well as the Accela custom Webcasts for marketers. For our favorite mix of creative takes on tech news, however, we still favor Wired.com, which sniffs out trends and provides perspective better than practically anyone. Among these familiar tech vets, however, we are also keeping our eyes on G4TechTV, which is pouring video from the fledgling network online and with it, some great in-stream advertising. Steve Smith

women & family/health

iVillage.com

If it takes a village, here's a site with a multifaceted landscape

It is a woman's prerogative to change her mind - whether it's the products she buys, the men she dates or the Web site that, on any given day, she chooses to surf. So, it could be said that this particular category was arguably one of the toughest to decide, since a number of female-targeted Web sites each carry their own individual strengths catering to both advertisers and users.

But the site that seems to stand apart from the rest in our eyes is iVillage.com: The Women's Network. The site's unprecedented ability to offer a virtual one-stop shop for all that makes up the average woman's life is like no other. It provides women ages 25 to 54 a neighborhood of support in the areas of parenting, health, work, money, food, and relationships.

According to November data from comScore Media Metrix, nearly 17 million visitors went to iVillage, which also provides advertisers with an array of customized opportunities. Soon after its launch, the site pioneered the concept of online integrated sponsorships and the integration of brand messages through sponsored content, customized bridge sites, and special promotions. The site has also proven to be a category leader in the use of online advertising and sponsorship. A home page takeover by General Mills in early January highlights the company's Whole Grain cereals, coinciding with what is foremost in many women's minds - weight loss, diet, and health.

This year, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Network also caught our eye with an impressive array of content targeting women, and for creating pre-roll video advertising opportunities for marketers. Other sites that caught our attention: Epicurious.com is a sophisticated blend of recipes and tips, and more importantly, a visual delight. It incorporates online advertising better than most sites in the category. Foodnetwork.com, which offers a clean design and is the perfect compliment to watching the TV network of the same name, while WebMD continues to be a place for reliable medical information that users genuinely trust.

We think America Online's Diet and Fitness and Food channels are also strong, and benefit from cross-pollination with popular Time Inc. magazine properties. Tricia Despres