|
Yahoo! intros broadcast site
|
 |
April 23, 2001: 3:00 p.m. ET
Internet media company courts advertisers with multimedia content
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Internet media company Yahoo! launched a new service Monday offering multimedia content from a broad range of providers.
The new service, called Yahoo! Broadcast, is part of the company's efforts to attract more advertisers. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, which derives roughly 85 percent of its revenue from advertising, has been hit hard by a steep slowdown in online advertising sales, and has been re-examining its ad-supported business model.
Through the new service – which will feature audio and video content from providers such as Comedy World Radio Network, The Economist magazine and Accuweather – Yahoo! executives are aiming to increase their advertising sales by giving advertisers a new kind of medium through which to reach consumers.
The company said it will give advertisers on Yahoo! Broadcast the option of purchasing targeted media to reach the "9-to-5"' audience during the workday at their desktop PCs.
"Traditional television broadcast advertising strives to raise consumer awareness of a product or service, in the hope that a consumer will remember that product or brand when making a purchasing decision," said David Mandelbrot, general manager of Yahoo! Entertainment.
"Now, through the interactive experience of Yahoo! Broadcast, advertisers can enjoy the benefits of highly trackable commercials -- within relevant media experiences -- that are just one click away from a commerce transaction," Mandelbrot added.
Users of the new service receive the content through a three-windowed interface where the video element plays in the upper-left, related information is presented on the right and the bottom window is a Web browser.
While much of the content will be related to news, sports and weather, Yahoo! executives said they are committed to making its site a prime destination for entertainment.
"Part of our strategy is to become the premiere entertainment site on the Web," said Ellen Siminoff, senior vice president of Yahoo!'s entertainment and small business division.
"Yahoo! Broadcast represents the best in the convergence of entertainment and new media," Siminoff added. "This new service combines the interactivity of the Web with the rich experience of television and radio."
Shares of Yahoo! (YHOO: down $1.64 to $18.21, Research, Estimates) were trading sharply lower on Nasdaq Monday afternoon.
As one of the few Internet companies that actually has logged some black ink on its bottom line, Yahoo! shares were among the highest flyers prior to the dot.com meltdown. Over the past year, they have ranged between a high of $173 and a low of $11.37.
The company has been in the midst of a major management reshuffle, including the replacement of Tim Koogle, its former chief executive. Koogle stepped down from his post last week, making way for veteran media executive Terry Semel.
Semel formerly was chairman and co-chief executive of film studio Warner Brothers, which is owned by CNNfn parent company AOL Time Warner, where he worked for 24 years.
There has been a raft of senior-executive resignations at Yahoo! in recent months, prompting speculation among company watchers that the members of its management team were at odds about how to cope with the dramatic slowdown in Internet advertising.
When the company reported its latest quarterly results earlier this month, executives also unveiled a restructuring plan, including 420 job cuts which they said should result in cost savings of between $7 million and $9 million per quarter.
In addition to the layoffs, which affect about 12 percent of the company's total staff, Yahoo! said it is taking other cost-cutting measures, including discontinuing or reallocate some secondary services on its network of properties, decreasing discretionary spending and centralizing some businesses across its global organization. 
-- Reuters contributed to this article
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
