Blogs and Stories
Hey, Yahoo, It's Time to Grow Up
So they are probably ripe to partner up, which could help you move even faster. Why not offer to produce news in all forms to partners to distribute over their systems, whether broadcast, print, or interactive? License your news to as many outside outlets as possible to help cover costs. Why not co-produce 60 Minutes with CBS, or cover business news for ABCNews.com. Bid for NCAA tournament Internet rights.
Yahoo can become huge again if you do this right. The brand can stand for something very special and can give a boost to the future of journalism. The fact is, you are starting with a huge advantage. You have an audience on the site for things like email, stock quotes, sports scores, etc. And you have a good deal of technology. Also, you have extended yourself on to mobile platforms. What a powerful head start!
But the most important thing you have going for you is technology. While you might not be Google, you should be pretty good at this, and a LOT better than the existing media companies, which own virtually no technology and very little technology expertise. New media will be defined by customer demand and technology that meets that demand. You are in a unique position to study that demand and build or improve the technology needed to meet it.
One more thing.
Yahoo wasn’t alone in trying to figure out its role as a content creator. AOL had a similar problem. Even after it merged with Time Warner, a company that understood and rewarded editorial leadership, AOL was run not by editors or producers with vision, but essentially by the “circulation” department. The marketing people who sent out those millions of free discs built a company purely on convenience of use. By treating content essentially as a commodity, they made it easy for their users to go elsewhere when they were no longer captives of AOL’s dial-up service. Had the powers-that-be at Time Warner spent their time and energy building a first-rate interactive content business, they could have kept users longer, whether or not they were dial-up subscribers.
I’m pretty sure neither AOL nor Yahoo still fully understands the magnitude of their lost opportunity. AOL had the audience but wasted it away. Yahoo is close to doing the same.
So now is the moment. The mainstream media are reeling. Dive in and hire major editorial talent and go out and reinvent the storytelling process on our newest platform.
In ten years you could be the most dominant media company in the world.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Why America Must Learn to Bow
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
Can Yahoo Save the News?
Larry Kramer is senior adviser at Polaris Venture Partners, a venture-capital firm. He served as the first president of CBS Digital Media. Prior to joining CBS, Kramer was chairman, CEO, and founder of MarketWatch Inc. Kramer spent more than 20 years as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Examiner, the Washington Post, and the Times of Trenton.
The Media Can Profit from Twitter's Big Week
Larry Kramer is senior adviser at Polaris Venture Partners, a venture-capital firm. He served as the first president of CBS Digital Media. Prior to joining CBS, Kramer was chairman, CEO, and founder of MarketWatch Inc. Kramer spent more than 20 years as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Examiner, the Washington Post, and the Times of Trenton.
Why the AOL-Time Warner Merger Was a Good Idea
Larry Kramer is senior adviser at Polaris Venture Partners, a venture-capital firm. He served as the first president of CBS Digital Media. Prior to joining CBS, Kramer was chairman, CEO, and founder of MarketWatch Inc. Kramer spent more than 20 years as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Examiner, the Washington Post, and the Times of Trenton.
Great article. It sounds like Yahoo ran their company like many (most?) individuals run their lives; without a vision. It's very, very important to know what we want in life. I suppose Yahoo didn't even know if they wanted $47 billion. www.LikeSoup.com
As a former Yahoo, I have to say that your advice is dead on. The tenor though, that Yahoo! still has to grow up, is wrong. It did grow up...into that weird uncle who drifts aimlessly from one profession to another thinking that he's in the Jack-of-all-trades business.
Don't tell Yahoo! grow up because they tried that already. What they need to do is decide on what they want to specialize in once and for all and stick with it. Not exactly the same thing as growing up. IMHO
I really like the reference to AOL. Yahoo has the online eyeballs, they have major brand prestige (unlike AOL) and they have amazing sports and financial tools. I sat back and watched them take on ESPN and CNBC several years ago and lately it feels like they started chasing partnerships and not the next great idea. www.coexistcreative.com
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.