LAS VEGAS-At a press conference at the Cable Show yesterday, News Corp. COO Peter Chernin offered his views on both mobile and online business efforts.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time trying to get from zero to 60 in 10 seconds,” he said. “I’m not a technologist; there’s people far smarter than me working on this. … My view is we should move slowly. … We want commercials that are effective to the advertiser, that [don’t] drive people away from the site.” He added that the goal is to invent a new model in the increasingly unstructured jungle of web advertising. “We’re making it up as we go along. I’m perfectly happy to take the time to get it right rather than rush.”
Chernin also discussed News Corp.’s recent $188 million acquisition of mobile-content company Jamba, and mentioned the confusion surrounding the mobile arena.
“No one knows what it looks like,” he said. “It’s like the cable business in the late ’70s right now. In 1977, no one knew there was going to be an ESPN, Discovery or a Lifetime. What happens is hopefully smart people get into it and begin experimenting with different content forms. When we bought Jamba, they had a business model that has fairly high-priced subscriptions,” he said.
But even though Chernin has control over Jamba, the overall business is still sink or swim. “Those people who do a good job will flourish and those who don’t, won’t. We’re in the very first pitch of the first inning and we’re all trying to figure it out.”
Andrew Hampp is a reporter with Advertising Age, a sister publication of RCR Wireless News. Both publications are owned by Crain Communications Inc.
