I'm curious about what people in the Christian space think about MTV possibly launching a vertical site focused around "faith and spirituality," which to me signals they want a piece of the zillion dollar Christian music pie. Do you think the company that a certain strand of evangelicals (BattleCry) would consider the enemy and the source of most of what they view as evil in the popular culture can be successful in this space? I could be wrong -- maybe "faith and spiritualiy" just means some sort of music version of Beliefnet -- open to every faith and its music. But when AdAge used "Bible-Thumpers" in its headline, it made me think otherwise...
Posted by anastasia
Christian Teen Media | Music | Web
Comments
How is MTV creating a "vertical site" different from if they created a horizonal site?
Posted by: Eric_Jaffa
|
November 29, 2006 11:20 AM
Hi Eric - vertical is a business term to describe creating content around specific topics or niches. For example on a service like Yahoo!, travel and autos are considered verticals. Ypulse would be considered a vertical site because it deals with such a specific niche (teen media and marketing). It has nothing to do with length or width.
Posted by: anastasia
|
November 29, 2006 11:40 AM
Hi Anastasia! Awesome post title! haha. As a person in the Christian space, I love MTV - I still remember fondly days of skipping class in college to watch MTV - especially Remote Control. [Ok, I'm dating myself...] I think MTV is still on the cutting edge of teen culture - they have not lost their influence yet. And I think anything they attempt on the edge of 'faith and spirituality' will certainly be successful. It's hard to not imagine them being able to tie in that vertical site via the current programming [ie - Isn't there more to life than Laguna Beach? - check out MTV's new www....] And I do think it is a shame that some evangelicals have termed MTV the enemy. From my perspective, engaging and learning from and even using a cultural icon like MTV for teachable moments is a much better idea.
Posted by: tony sheng | November 29, 2006 1:43 PM
I'm in the Christian space as well. I have two thoughts:
1. I wish MTV would incorporate some faith-based/spiritual shows into their current lineups instead of making a separate space. It would balance out the materially minded shows like Tiara Girls, My Sweet 16, Laguna Beach, etc. And I'm not a big fan of separating faith into something separate, our own little world, instead of dealing with any kind of faith as what it is -- part of our everyday lives.
2. I do feel that they want a piece of the pie as far as money goes, but isn't that what we assume all big companies try to do?! But that said, I think they'll need to make sure the people running that sector are genuine because that will show.
Posted by: Kelly | November 30, 2006 1:30 PM
These are great comments. I know lots of MTV folks subscribe to the newsletter, maybe they'll stumble across these comments as well.
Posted by: anastasia
|
November 30, 2006 2:32 PM