While their marriage has endured hitch-free for more than two years, New York network solutions company Icon, which owns the renowned Web zine Word and extreme sports site Charged, told Wired News Wednesday it is approaching large media partners to help develop and support its sites.
"Word and Charged are media properties and Icon is not a media company - we definitely recognize that," says Tom Livaccari, who is nevertheless executive producer of Icon's New Media Productions. "But Icon has invested millions of dollars and we're trying to figure out a way to remain affiliated with them and ... exploit the brand."
Icon's CEO Scott Baxter is quick to note that Word and Charged are not for sale and that no joint venture discussions are going on now, but he believes an outside partnership "is in the cards." For Baxter, however, the evolving business model isn't unique to Word and Charged. While traditional media companies continue to move to the Web, he says, "it's only a matter of time before you start seeing Internet media brands moving in other directions."
Icon's new strategy points out how the relationship between some content providers and the corporations that keep them alive is changing. For zines like Word, the time may have come to hunt for a more comfortable home on the market, licensing its brand name to media conglomerates like Time Warner, Microsoft, or News Corp.
Like most web-only publications, Word and Charged need to find to a way to build a sustainable business. Word's editor in chief, Marisa Bowe, says that, "there¹s no way [Word] can go on forever," without a dedicated advertising or marketing staff. "For Word to reach its potential, it needs to be a part of a company that's interested in supporting them," she adds. Wired News is in current partnership with New York web publication FEED.
When Icon first took on Word two years ago and Charged in late 1995, the approach was focused on the short-term. "Like in the early days of TV, the companies that were building the broadcast towers were making the shows," says Dan Pelson, who started Word and Charged and now runs a content development company, Concrete Media. "[Icon] was trying to prove the infrastructure for the stuff they provide - pipes and hardware - so they needed some gleaming jewels on the Net."
According to Baxter, the strategy worked. "Word and Charged are a capability statement" of Icon¹s strengths, says Baxter. "Word has created a position on the marketplace for Icon that says it really understands the [online] space - as opposed to a traditional communications company."
Word and Charged may not be alone in their slow migration toward partnerships. Agency.com faces a similar dilemma with the future of the alternative-culture webzine Urban Desires, which is owned by Agency's chief executives, Kyle Shannon and Chan Suh.
While Shannon and Suh currently fund Urban Desires out of their own pockets, it's expensive to produce, and Suh admits that it makes sense for them to partner with a company to license the brand. "If a media company wants to take Urban Desires and blow it out, that's cool."
For Word and Charged, exploiting the brand may be the only survival tactic. Bowe said Word could potentially develop into a production company, developing or consulting on Web sites "like a fake indie film company like Miramax." Livaccari hopes to explore a variety of alternative markets for Icon's products, but that may also stretch the company thin. "Charged TV is getting some interest, but does Icon belong in the TV business? I don't think so," he says.
From the Wired News New York Bureau at FEED magazine.
