We’re doing it again – it’s the AdExchanger.com “live” blog!
Well, it’s not quite “live”. The internet access at the La Quinta venue is “challenging.” (Oh, the irony.) Nevertheless, we’re blogging almost “live”!
Today, we’ll cover a discussion with Byron Reese, evp of Demand Media and Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media.
9:46 a.m.: Coffee. Muffin. I’m ready.
9:47 a.m.: Byron Reese completes Demand Media’s presentation/pitch.
9:48 a.m.: John Battelle begins interview of Rosenblatt.
9:49 a.m.: Demand Media has been in a regulatory “quiet period” up until three days ago. Rosenblatt wants people to understand Demand (due to all the noise about dumping content farms in Google.). Says 14 people touch every piece of Demand Media content.
9:50 a.m.: John Battelle brings up the idea of Demand Media replacing journalism. Rosenblatt says the disruption they bring to journalism is expected. He’s happy to respond.
9:51 a.m.: Battelle asks if there’s another place like search to get “signal”.
9:52 a.m.: Rosenblatt brings up a bunch of examples where signal isn’t coming through search related to his company’s network of sites.
9:54 a.m.: Demand Media has announced relationships with Tyra Banks and Rachel Ray… woohoo! The point is that these personalities will work with to create a branded media environment using Demand Media’s content generation methodology.
9:58 a.m.: He considers data collectors competitors. Professional content creation network.. with content properties. Competitors across each of the three.
10:00 a.m.: Rosenblatt notes that Google did not “announce” their change in the search algo. Demand Media couldn’t respond due to quiet period. Battelle asks what happened to properties with the Farmer ago update.
10:01 a.m.: Google made a “12% change” to the ago and there’s no material change according to Rosenblatt. Battelle notes that eHow traffic is up.
10:03 a.m.: Regarding YouTube relationship, Rosenblatt talks about ongoing short video strategy. Says they receive traffic and revenue share from YouTube. Talking Rachel Ray again about dedicated channels of content…
10:05 a.m.: Battelle asks more about point of branded entertainment. Rosenblatt wants to give people what they want. Also there is now a blogging network on LiveStrong and eHow. All sort of tips, all the time.
10:07 a.m.: Q&A! Here we go…. question about “questioning” method used to generate content and whether the questions will run out. Rosenblatt says questions don’t run out and only 20% of questions are the same. Rosenblatt wants to answer everybody’s questions. Everybody’s!
10:09 a.m.: They’re not going international, non-english right now.. they’re testing. UK is the first test -yes, it’s english.
10:10 a.m.: Battelle going into the S-1 from their regulatory filing and selling brand advertising. No surprise- Rosenblatt says selling to brand advertisers is going great. Gives house paint, tax software examples.. talks about intent driven content is great for brands.
10:12 a.m.: Another question from the audience… capital costs of creating content. the content creation is an asset and has created controversy with the way it is accounted for in Demand Media’s financial statement. Rosenblatt says content has shelf life of at least 5 years, maybe 10. He says the content’s value and traffic continues to grow over time.
10:14 a.m.: Randall Rothenberg asks a question.. says Demand is compared to About.com and others.. asks how Rosenblatt differentiates his company from the competitors.
10:16 a.m.: First, no ago like Demand Media’s algos. Talks about the copy editing process… and says the properties are differentiated by individual bloggers, content, etc. How about scale?
10:17 a.m.: Rosenblatt wants people to know his company listens to consumers and gives them content they want. Sounds like he wants to position around making and creating brands… remains to be seen.
10:18 a.m.: Rosenblatt emphasizes the use of data… cue hunchback of noter data “The Data!… The Data! Looking to partner.
10:19 a.m.: And, we’re done.. not much info all in all other than no “hit” to traffic according to Rosenblatt.
