Jim Bankoff, EVP of programming at AOL., told the press this week that AOL was going to make its content more accessible on the web to non-subscribers.
When I heard that, it sounded like a re-tread of the AOL/Netscape/TW strategy of getting all the content out there for free. On the other hand, AOL may not have too much content beyond the TW properties to whom they are paying a reported $40MM a year for the right to keep their info only for subscribers.
This seems more likely than not, because I just went on to AOL and did searches on three keywords that used to pop up main pages from the women’s channel: Fashion, Beauty, and Style.
When I keyworded them at AOL I get–nothing!
Or, more specifically, I get search results directing me out to the web, to non-TW properties such as Style.com ,a competitor from CondeNast.
Clearly, the old AOL fashion and beauty pages,which were not great, have been taken down.
But no one at AOL seems to have taken steps to make sure their keywords go to relevant AOL pages instead of being dumped into a search list.
Basically, this means that unless you key in People or InStyle or Real Simple, you would NEVER find fashion, beauty or style content from those magazines as part of your AOL experience.
Isn’t that a little odd? And the opposite of what many editors would consider a good reader experience?
Tina Sharkey and Deanna Brown, if you are running the women’s channel, something seems very wrong here.
Mark Golin, and Ned Desmond, if this is about managing Time Inc content, have someone at AOL redirect keywords to find your sites.
And Jim, my friend, maybe you should have your guys keep improving the integration of Time Inc magazines into the AOL framework so subscribers have better access to that content, assuming of course, that members still rule.
Jim Bankoff, EVP of programming at AOL., told the press this week that AOL was going to make its content more accessible on the web to non-subscribers.
When I heard that, it sounded like a re-tread of the AOL/Netscape/TW strategy of getting all the content out there for free. On the other hand, AOL may not have too much content beyond the TW properties to whom they are paying a reported $40MM a year for the right to keep their info only for subscribers.
This seems more likely than not, because I just went on to AOL and did searches on three keywords that used to pop up main pages from the women’s channel: Fashion, Beauty, and Style.
When I keyworded them at AOL I get–nothing!
Or, more specifically, I get search results directing me out to the web, to non-TW properties such as Style.com ,a competitor from CondeNast.
Clearly, the old AOL fashion and beauty pages,which were not great, have been taken down.
But no one at AOL seems to have taken steps to make sure their keywords go to relevant AOL pages instead of being dumped into a search list.
Basically, this means that unless you key in People or InStyle or Real Simple, you would NEVER find fashion, beauty or style content from those magazines as part of your AOL experience.
Isn’t that a little odd? And the opposite of what many editors would consider a good reader experience?
Tina Sharkey and Deanna Brown, if you are running the women’s channel, something seems very wrong here.
Mark Golin, and Ned Desmond, if this is about managing Time Inc content, have someone at AOL redirect keywords to find your sites.
And Jim, my friend, maybe you should have your guys keep improving the integration of Time Inc magazines into the AOL framework so subscribers have better access to that content, assuming of course, that members still rule.