Media Business - July 2010

Fast-forward at Reuters
Publisher positions Web-based video service
as ‘disruptive in a positive way’ to work flow

BY MATTHEW SCHWARTZ

The pace of new online-video program- ming has accelerated in the last several months, as media companies scramble to create video-based marketing vehicles for customers eager to align their brands with online content.

Reuters Insider, part of Thomson Reuters Corp., is the latest entry into online-video sweepstakes.

The Web-based video service, which debuted in May, offers multiple channels featuring content produced by the company’s 2,800 worldwide reporters and 150 content partners, such as CNBC and Forbes, plus dozens of financial-service companies. It enables subscribers to follow the specific markets relevant to their work and reconfigure the video according to their needs.

About 15% of the content on Reuters Insider comes from Reuters’ studios; the remainder is generated by content partners. Thomson Reuters is still working on its revenue-sharing strategy with partners, said Lee Ann Daly, exec VP-CMO of Thomson Reuters Markets, who is helping to develop the marketing efforts for Reuters Insider.

Reuters Insider is currently available for free, but this fall will be integrated into Thomson Reuters Eikon, the company’s next-generation financial desktop platform. It will be offered by subscription. Thomson Reuters would not confirm reports that subscribers pay $2,000 a month for the media company’s desktop services.

“Reuters Insider is a technology platform
that is disruptive in a positive way to the
work flow of clients,” Daly said. “We want to
get more people to understand what it is and
want to bring their content to it, because it is
brand-building opportunity for [financial ser-
vice companies].”
She added: “We get the reputational shot
in the arm of having Morgan Stanley or JP
Morgan Chase & Co. [produce video seg-
ments] and the best people in those organiza-
tions wanting to lend their faces and their
voices” to the video content.

Thomson Reuters is plugging Reuters In-
sider with a marketing campaign, called
“Chart Karate,” that includes online, TV and
print ads. So far, the site has garnered about
105,000 visitors and more than 21,000 regis-
trants, according to Reuters.

Convening for high-level debates The Economist online in June introduced “By Invitation,” a new feature designed to provide readers with access to leading economists in business and academia. Ron Diorio, VP-product and community development at The Economist online, talked about the program.

Media Business: How does “By Invitation” dovetail with your overall sales and marketing strategy online?

Ron Diorio: We try to develop products that are reader-focused because, when readers use the products and engage with them, it makes it much more effective for sales and marketing executives because they know they’re going to be reaching an audience of active users. A good example is “The Economist Online Debate”— convening an audience to participate in a framework it can understand and allowing readers to contribute at a high level.

MB:Is this an opportunity for advertisers to take more ownership of individual topics?

Diorio: Advertisers can buy into the channel so they can have their message in banners and roadblocks on [discussion] pages. As the program expands, we want to make sure we’re obtaining metrics on participation against each of the channels so we can inform advertisers about the potential to them.

MB:What is the social-media component of the program?

Diorio: We’re using both Facebook and “tweets” to drive traffic. Because this is a new program, we’ll see how people respond to it and whether we need to craft structures within Facebook and Twitter to make sure people recognize this program and want to be involved over time. —M.S.