Friday, May 15, 2009

Martha Stewart Tests Paid Online Videos - for Archives

From Memo Pad

CLASSIC MARTHA: Martha Stewart is about to try something most magazine publishers have yet to attempt: charging for online videos. Next month, Stewart will begin testing consumers’ appetite to pay for videos, which will come from archives that are not yet available online. The videos can be purchased at marthastewart.com and then downloaded onto a computer, iPod or mobile phone. Pricing has not been set. Stewart said she’s been trying to figure out how the company can charge readers for online content for several years although, for now, the broader digital strategy will continue with an ad-supported online model.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Stewart said, during a conversation with New York Times media columnist David Carr on Thursday that was mainly about celebrities using Twitter. They spoke at the DeSilva + Phillips “The Future of Celebrity Media” conference. Stewart now has more than 600,000 followers on Twitter, although she hasn’t figured out how to get them to also read her blogs. “I think we’ll define it more,” she said, adding she will test Twitter with more specific information on, say, weddings or gardening.

— Amy Wicks

Many companies do have gold mines of how to videos out of sight and out of circulation.

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