Natural Born Storyteller: Q and A with Steve Rosenbaum

November/December 2007 Issue: Page 58

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Steve Rosenbaum made his name on MTV and doing documentaries. So it's natural that he's into Web video. Rosenbaum is the founder and CEO of Magnify.net, which powers user-generated video (UGV) channels for Web publishers, media companies and video bloggers. The Magnify. net platform searches and sorts virtually all video available on the Internet based on a site's interest (such as hobbies, politics, music) and engages users to discover, share and rate them for relevancy and entertainment value.

Magnify.net came out of closed beta in January 2007 at the DEMO conference and had 20,000 to 30,000 page views a day. It is now averaging 350,000 and was on target to pass 10 million page views in October. Currently there are more than 15,000 channels for users to discover.

Revenue magazine Senior Writer Alexandra Wharton asked Rosenbaum how he got interested in collaborative media production, how users can provide tools to build vibrant video communities and about the impact video will have on marketers and performance marketers

ALEXANDRA WHARTON: Although user-generated content has been all the rage for the past few years, you have been involved in it for much longer. How did you get interested?

STEVE ROSENBAUM: I've always loved hearing the authentic sound of a storyteller's voice. So before video, that meant autobiographies, diary entries or journals - I found the raw and intimate nature of first-person storytelling very compelling.

I have been a filmmaker, and more of a visual storyteller, but there really wasn't much of a place for first-person media in film or TV. The gear was just too big and expensive.

Then, in 1991 I got an 800 number and had viewers to my TV show call in and record their story ideas. I put their voices on the air. It was amazing. In 1993, Sharp released the first LCD ViewCam and made it possible to shoot yourself on video.

The result was a show I created for MTV called "UNfiltered." It was a program that literally put the power of TV in the hands of the audience and let them shoot their own stories. People were hungry to express themselves and become part of the conversation. That's only become truer today. You can see some of the clips here (www.unfiltered.Magnify.net).

AW: Can you explain how a user could use Magnify.net to create a community?

SR: Magnify.net takes the idea that communities want to communicate and gives them the tools and resources to activate video sharing and engagement within their site. Really any site can do it. If you've got a site that is up and running, but you don't have video yet, Magnify.net will let you choose your URL, and pick topics and keywords that you want video around. Then Magnify.net discovers the video and your community can act as the peer-review rating system.

AW: Do users need to be technically savvy?

SR: Magnify.net is built for site creators who are passionate about their content and community - technical skills are not necessary. All the tools are drag-and-drop simple; there are a few bits of code and you're done. We have great tech support: FAQs, discussion boards and quick responses to our support ticket system. Other community members are supportive as well. It's easy, fun and is ready to grow as your skills and abilities increase.

AW: You have been credited with creating a new paradigm for community- created video - did you always see the potential to monetize it?

SR: This may sound simplistic but I see the future opportunities for revenue clearly. Currently there is an advertising system that is optimized to reach a mass audience. TV media is designed to be mass media. But if you look at Google, for example, the real future is in aggregating the niches and providing contextual advertising into those verticals. Just look at the readers of this magazine. Many of them have sites that serve extraordinarily narrow audiences. But they have large defined audiences.

So yes - I think there will be an inevitable shift as more systems can target focused audiences. Content creators and community curators who do a good job creating high-quality audiences will be well-positioned to garner revenue as the spend against community-curated UGV increases.

AW: How does Magnify.net help serve those who want to build a community around a very niche site?

SR: There are two models: those who want to start from scratch and build a site, and individuals who have already built a site and want to add video. Two examples of this are PrettyToughTV.com and Radio Controlled Universe, respectively.

Pretty Tough TV [www.prettytough.com/video.php] is a network of Magnify. net sites created on Magnify.net that serve serious female high school athletes. It's the work of a mom and her two daughters in Los Angeles who have a passion for sports. Magnify.net allowed them to build 14 channels into a sports network that they run out of their den.

On the other hand, there is the site Radio Controlled Universe (www. rcuvideos.com), which had a successful website with 300,000 registered users. When they built their Magnify.net channel, hits on the videos were through the roof. Now they've got thousands of video makers and watchers and it is growing every day.

AW: Can you explain Magnify.net's sites' different types of advertising, including Google AdSense ads and integrated ads?

SR: We've built a solution that has three user configurations: advanced, moderate and hobbiest. The "advanced" users are going to claim their own inventory. That means banners, in-page display, CPC, CPA, text, and click-to-play video space on our pages. They're going to bring their own ad relationships with CJ, LinkShare, Performics, Google AdSense and Amazon - whoever they want. They're getting paid directly so there's no waiting for us to reconcile and no crossed wires over payments. This is ideal for advanced affiliate marketers.

For the "moderate" users who want revenue but don't want to be spending time on optimization and multiple ad network management, we offer a one-click integration with AdSense - just put in the AdSense ID and Magnify. net will do the rest.

And for the "hobbiest" that is using Magnify.net for the occasional video, you don't need to claim any ad space at all. Odds are that for the casual user sites, they are not going to be participating in the ad network. Of course if traffic grows, they can claim their 50 percent of the traffic with AdSense.

AW: Can you talk about the AdShare Network that launched in August, which aims to allow site creators the ability to broker more lucrative deals with advertisers?

SR: For Revenue readers, our AdShare network is really the most interesting alternative. Continued on Page 2...

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