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Pop the politics
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Content
1
Pop The Politics
by
Chima Simone Benson
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE
SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the
Degree MASTER OF
ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM – THE ARTS)
May 2015
Copyright 2015 Chima Benson
2
Acknowledgements
Sasha Anawalt, your wisdom, your encouragement, and your support have helped me
tremendously over the course of my participation in the Specialized Journalism program.
Your patient guidance with this thesis is an added bonus that is much appreciated.
Additionally, I extend my gratitude to Mary Murphy and Marc Cooper for their expertise on
this project. I am beyond pleased, as I could not have completed this undertaking without all
of you.
3
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 2
Abstract 4
1. Introduction 5
2. Content 9
3. Competitive Analysis 22
4. Audience Analysis 25
5. Strategies and Determining Success 29
References 40
Appendix A: PopThePolitics Homepage Layout 45
Appendix B: E!Online Celeb + Political Story 47
Appendix C: Young Democrats vs. Republicans Social Media Study 49
Appendix D: Twitter Tailored Ad Approach 50
Appendix E: Marketing Influencers 51
Appendix F: Revenue Sources & Financials of Business Plan 52
Appendix G: E!Online Internal Performance Review 58
4
Abstract
Conceptualized during the fall semester of 2012, PopThePolitics (with the domain
popthepolitics.com purchased at that time) is a news site with plans to cover politics and current
events exclusively through the lens of celebrity. This thesis explores the strategies, tactics,
benchmarks and content necessary to ensure its successful launch and subsequent achievement,
as it becomes a major player amongst other self-sustaining digital newsrooms.
5
1. Introduction
A pop culture enthusiast and self-proclaimed celebrity wrangler, I've covered entertainment,
film, TV, music and other industry news in all facets and across all platforms. With over ten
years experience, I've recapped TV shows at TheWrap, written celeb-centric stories for E!
Entertainment and AOL, worked red carpet arrivals, press junkets and special events for
Hollyscoop TV and website—a platform that attracted 2,952,360 unique visitors at the start of
2014—and Associated Press London, where I interviewed A-listers, Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock
and other Hollywood heavyweights. Moreover, I have served as an executive producer for
USC's award winning news site Neon Tommy.
During my time at Neon Tommy my work consisted of covering current events happening
nationally and globally that included, but were not limited to the Steubenville rape case, the
gun control debate following the Sandy Hook tragedy, the fiscal cliff crisis, and the anti-Morsi
protests that swept Egypt. I found writing these stories challenging because I felt constrained
in playing the content straight. Sticking to just the facts without the wiggle room allowed me
when reporting entertainment stories, I became fatigued with my posts. Of course I paid
attention to detail, avoiding typos and unintelligible sentence structure, but the content came
across staid and boring. And ultimately I decided if I experienced a rush of ennui settling over
me as I wrote the copy, the audience would feel the same in reading the copy.
Additionally, I discovered that our “Most Read” and “Most Commented” stories reflected on
the home page were oftentimes entertainment and human-interest opinion pieces, or recaps of
6
popular reality shows aired the night before. It was at that time I concluded there must be a
better way to convey important world and national issues in a voice that would garner that
same type of attention—a voice that I was more than familiar with—the call of celebrity.
Furthermore, with the definition of celebrity and fame widening I knew I had a myriad of
famous faces to choose from, ranging from A-list Hollywood thespian to Z-list reality TV
personality.
I see a perfect entry into this realm of politics and foreign affairs with a celebrity twist, as the
line between hard news and entertainment has already softened and showbiz has infiltrated
battered newsrooms—dumbing down political media content and delivering it to the masses.
In fact, some media outlets eschew prominent political coverage altogether in favor of
“breaking Justin Bieber news.” MSNBC went from reporting the news to becoming the lead
story when they cut off Congresswoman Jane Harman midsentence as she discussed a task
force’s recommendations for the NSA so they could cover the beleaguered pop star’s
appearance in court for egging a neighbor’s house (Berman 2014).
This is where my site PopThePolitics.com (domain purchased) comes in. Straddling the line
between hard news and sensationalized content, my digital newsroom will feature pop culture,
politics, and the punditry in between. PopThePolitics covers politics and current events
exclusively through the lens of celebrity. Popping with the visual appeal of sites similar to
E!Online, yet offering more than mere pop culture, I embrace the velvety, soft side of politics.
Empowering and educating readers with political and current event news while also
7
entertaining them, I seek to impart knowledge and insight into issues that affect their everyday
interactions and quality of life. I also aim to inspire political action by illustrating celebrities
from A-Z list are involved in multiple aspects of political movements and personal causes,
while providing a platform that explores the countless ways celebrities and pop culture
influence and drive the information age and help personalize it.
I’ll ask Justin Bieber’s thoughts on NSA surveillance, rather than interrupting heads of state as
they’re pontificating on pertinent world issues. In doing so, I can delve further into the topic
that may have originally not interested our intended audience focused solely on the pop star’s
criminal vandalism.
Currently, there are no sites solely devoted to presenting politics through the lens of celebrity
or providing 24/7 coverage of the celebrity and political news convergence like I intend.
People, US Weekly, E!Online and others report on the celebrity and political overlap from time
to time, with topics such as “A Short History of Pop Songs in Presidential Campaigns,” but the
coverage is not consistently political (Mackie 2014).
Not unlike those publications, I will also be telling the popular stories—giving the public the
tasty, fattening food they crave, but mixing in the vegetables, the stuff that’s good for them—
politics, current affairs—and making it more palatable to a younger and broader audience.
This thesis seeks to explore the development of my news site with the ultimate objective of
generating enough traffic that it’s a self-sustaining digital newsroom that gains acceptance in
8
the news digital space positioning it to sell to a bigger player who wants access to my growing
audience. In outlining the steps that will go into finding that audience, analyzing the current
competitive landscape, and creating a successful news site that matches or exceeds the
readership and visual appeal of high profile sites flourishing at present, this thesis also
examines the content, distribution and more tools necessary to navigate the unfulfilled niche of
covering political, pop culture and celebrity convergence in the PopThePolitics newsroom.
Strategies, tactics, and benchmarks will be my primary focus as I determine what is best for
my site by examining what has worked and is working for established news brands,
burgeoning platforms, and entertainment news sites that reflect my desired end goal.
9
2. Content
As previously stated, my mission is for PopThePolitics to be a news site that dumbs down
political issues and current events by attaching celebrity names and their opinions to these news
items so the low information voter or the young audience who finds routine world issues boring
(much like I did in reporting them) is more likely to tune in and leave with at least a tidbit of
information it wouldn’t have known otherwise.
And the material is there, as many celebrities have a lot to say about what goes on inside the
Beltway and around the globe. They are accustomed to taking to Twitter and other social media
platforms to express their opposition or support of the legion of events occurring worldwide
and my site will bring their political musings and missing Malaysian plane location predictions
to one place (Newman, 2014).
As summer 2014 kicked off, the Supreme Court began issuing a slew of rulings. Yet, cases
involving Internet startup Aereo and cell phone privacy did not inspire the public outrage that
befell the high court when the controversial Hobby Lobby contraception decision came down.
Celebrities, pop star John Legend and Golden Globe-winning filmmaker/actress Lena Dunham
weighed in on Twitter with the latter stating, “Women's access to birth control should not be
denied because of their employer's religious beliefs.” And the former shocked by the steps
backwards this country is taking, declared, “I'm amazed that we're debating women's access to
CONTRACEPTION in 2014 (Dunham, Legend 2014).” Famed actress Ashley Judd decided to
advance the topic, penning an article on Al Jazeera America’s website cautioning, “[the ruling]
10
could have grave consequences for girls, women and families throughout the developing world
(Judd 2014). This commentary by some of Hollywood’s most popular names, who span an
audience from young to old, brings awareness to a topic that may have gone unnoticed by those
more concerned with the entertainment news that broke that day: NBC’s Community picking up
a sixth season (Furlong 2014), a feud between female hip-hop stars Nicki Minaj and Iggy
Azalea (Grow 2014), Beyoncé topping Forbes’ Celeb 100 list, etc. (Pomerantz 2014).
Reflecting a recent trend, Ben Affleck has also taken his opinions past the 140-character limit
of social media, blogging with Huffington Post beginning in 2007. His posts primarily focus on
his humanitarian work in the Eastern Congo, although he’s also written about elections and
getting out the vote as well (Affleck 2012). The 42-year-old actor doesn’t confine himself to the
role of celeb do-gooder who only espouses approved party lines. On the same day his box-
office hit Gone Girl premiered, Affleck went toe-to-toe with liberal provocateur Bill Maher in a
debate about radical Islam and religious stereotyping. Abandoning the conventional actor
promotional spiel, Affleck heatedly barked at Maher and author Sam Harris for what he
perceived to be their “gross” and “racist” depictions of Muslims (Alexander 2014). This heated
exchange had the Internet talking and social media buzzing about more than the audience
turnout for Affleck’s critically acclaimed film. People who were originally tuning in to see the
popular star and maybe hear a little about his new movie were now weighing in on Islamic
extremism and fundamentalism, ISIS, and politics as a whole.
Celebrity voices like his are necessary in getting the everyday movie buff to become a part-time
world news consumer. In due time, I want PopThePolitics to be celebrity driven in that stars
11
themselves will write many of the articles and posts detailing their beliefs or the issues that are
important to them, but in the site’s initial stages I’d like to incorporate guest blogs as the
aforementioned sites have done or take news events like Affleck on Maher’s Real Time to build
out a story that illustrates more celebrity religious convictions or posts that tackle similar
politically-charged material.
I have registered the (parked) domain celebritybylines.com that will point to the same directory
as PopThePolitics.com when my primary site is launched so a search for ‘Celebrity Bylines’
would return my site and the bylines I have with notable names championing their political
views as one of the results.
Content will also cover lighter fare like a post I pitched and wrote for E!Online about Michelle
Obama’s 50th birthday and her famous friends (Simone 2014). In addition to covering the
celebrities that wished her well, I compiled a photo gallery of the first lady with her Hollywood
associates that accompanied the written item.
Segments like “Balling with Obama” where I probe into the rumors Jay-Z plays basketball at
the White House or consult Lebron James about the president’s free throw chops will be
highlighted. I’m revealing who President Obama thinks will win the Super Bowl. I’m also
calling attention to the celebrities that promoted the Affordable Care Act signups with a
#GetCovered push implemented soon after the launch of Healthcare.gov. Zach Galifianakis,
Scarlett Johansson, Lady Gaga, Olivia Wilde, Pharrell Williams and many more lent their
voices to Obamacare and were credited for the effectiveness of their contributions (Suebsaeng
12
2013). I’m featuring the celebrities who are taking on gun control with humor, in the manner of
Sarah Silverman quipping, “You'll have to pry my misfired gun from my cold dead half-hand,”
when the Senate failed to pass a gun control measure expanding background checks — a bill
that was exceedingly popular with many Americans soon after the Newtown massacre
(Silverman, Clement 2013).
Acquiring this high-profile content will be an access issue at first, but once we’ve landed at
least one renowned name it will be easier to amass more celebrity contributors. The founder of
Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, is known to have leveraged connections among the A-
listers she knew within Hollywood when she launched the site in 2005 (Grigoriadis 2011).
Like her, I initially plan on utilizing my background in entertainment reporting and history of
associations with celebrities—on a much smaller scale and without her millions in venture
capital—to land exclusives with Kanye West and possibly his wife Kim Kardashian. I’ve
known West since his early days as a producer and while our contact is less frequent as of late;
I’m still close to his best friend and longtime road manager who can arrange a meeting.
West is no stranger to voicing his unpopular opinions. Typically he’s expressing his political
arguments via onstage rants or radio interviews, as in a recent chat with Power106 FM in which
he said, “[Obama] can’t effect change from inside the White House” because he lacks the
money to do so (Ramisetti 2014). I will work to get him to put that type of critique in writing or
a video blog posted to my site.
Huffington Post may go after the more highbrow of Hollywood to politicize and pontificate, but
13
I’m not limiting my range to A-Listers. Oscar winner Jared Leto has almost 2 million followers
on Twitter, while the lower brow Snooki from Jersey Shore fame is just short of 7 million and
is just as outspoken. The inclusion of reality TV stars like her is necessary in order to increase
our digital footprint by capitalizing on the talent’s existing fan base. An advantage we have in
access to C-listers and lower ranked celebs is more established sites that have landed bigger
voices haven’t utilized these lesser names for political content.
However, we don’t have to purely scrape the bottom of the fame barrel at launch. The punditry
can also come from media personalities writing for the site—public figures who have gained
prominence and a following could be the foundation of the site.
Nieman Lab contributors, Nicco Mele and John Wihbey, posit, “What if news organizations
confronted the reality that nearly all media will be ‘social media’ a decade hence?…What if
news organizations acknowledged this — or even got out in front of it, ahead of the curve this
time — and organized themselves as platforms for talent?—outlets, like Boing Boing, are
making money largely based on the brands of several smart, interesting personalities. Many of
the “blogging networks” are built around aggregating traffic across different online
personalities. One could name dozens of examples where a single blogger or news personality
is driving substantial traffic (Mele, Wihbey 2014).”
Managing editor, Rob Beschizza explained Boing Boing’s non-strategy, “Some modern news
sites are all about relentless growth and promiscuous appeal to as many people as possible.
There's no voice—just an undifferentiated mountain of information. Boing Boing is much
14
smaller and personal than this. It's a half-dozen writers writing about what interests us and our
readers (Murphy 2012).” He continued, “There's no definitive BB article! There's no definitive
BB voice, either: just our individual voices blathering on at the site.”
Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder and Cory Doctorow are some of the writers and “interesting
personalities” that make up the voices that are “blathering” collaboratively. Jardin who is a tech
blogger, accomplished journalist and TV personality got her start covering New York's Silicon
Alley for the trade Silicon Alley Reporter alongside other technorati media notables such as
Clay Shirky and Rafat Ali (Piccalo 2005). Frauenfelder, once a Playboy columnist, founded
bOING bOING as a print version of the now popular blog and was responsible for bringing
Jardin on board. Doctorow serves as co-editor and is known for his liberal stance on intellectual
property and his belief in open rights regarding all digital media (Doctorow 2004). A few more
editors and a long list of contributors who tackle technology, science fiction gadgets amongst
other subjects, join them in simplifying geeky for the mainstream.
Mirroring their approach of established writers spouting what they know and love and
clarifying it for the masses, I plan on incorporating media personalities who know and can
detail political intricacies in a fun-loving, entertaining vein. At the same time, we’ll be covering
pop culture in a more meaningful, informative manner.
Though during operating year one, the focus of the content will be aggregated and will expand
each year thereafter as we attain more authors, featured bloggers, celebrity written
articles/posts, and TV personality contributors due to the site’s anticipated increase in it’s
15
engagement. Lower traffic generating entertainment news site, Celebuzz, has reality stars such
as the Kardashian sisters covering celeb news from their perspectives, proving a digital
platform doesn’t have to be a top site to land brand names (Celebuzz 2014).
Editorial, graphic art and images control will ensure brand identity and continuity. After a few
years, it is anticipated that paid contributors who will furnish original articles that will bear the
popthepolitics.com copyright will provide an increasing amount of original content. There will
ultimately be a full stable of writers and editors on staff aligned in one synergetic narrative and
collective design.
On par with this new industry standard of utilizing distinct well-known voices, PopThePolitics
will have a tone created by the contributions of various popular personalities that incumbent
media wouldn’t be able to easily parrot or impersonate.
Beginning as a small endeavor with me at the helm, I will be the first public figure and
PopThePolitics voice, as a TV personality with ten years of my aforementioned entertainment
news experience. In addition to the original content I will provide, my site will begin by
curating meaningful stories for our readers. Daily, I will cull lists of the most relevant pop
culture and political content from sources like Google News and convey it in my own voice,
lending insightful and snarky commentary. I will utilize a fast-food approach to delivering
content---catchy and SEO optimized headlines that capture the readers’ attention as well as the
first page of Google search results by coming in at 70 characters or less as practiced by Gawker
Media founder, Nick Denton (Denton 2014). I’ll keep the copy clear and concise and the
16
photos compelling. It will be a large undertaking to break ground on the blog as the primary
editor, but aggregation, coupled with combining pre-written posts that are scheduled to future
publish will lessen the breaking news day-to-day workload.
In the long term and after I’ve established a following that commands access, I plan on
reporting on industry events and during awards season as well. Instead of covering political red
carpets, like that of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, I believe it better to go to the
main Hollywood affairs like the Grammys, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, etc. And rather than
asking celebrities about Kim Kardashian's unprecedented Vogue cover, we’ll ask their opinions
on same-sex marriage or the civil unrest in Syria. The more asinine the response, the better the
headline.
Based on my prior experiences on the red carpet, I understand publicizing celebrities and their
political opinion fumbles will make us personas non grata on the red carpet. To avoid publicists
steering their clients away from us en masse, I’ve decided to employ the use of kid interviewers
who are less threatening and utilized to disarm the celeb (and their handlers). Kid President (or
a similar child media personality) would be the ideal candidate for our mini-reporter while
President Obama is in office, but after 2016’s inauguration of possibly the first female
president, Hillary Clinton, we’ll have a cute blond girl in a pantsuit fielding interviews. If it’s
Republican presidential hopeful Paul Ryan in the White House, I’ll find his young, likable
look-alike.
Our particular ploy is also useful because our red carpet producers can resort to the “Really,
17
you’re afraid of a few tough questions from a harmless kid?” tactic if celebrities still try to
avoid our child correspondents.
Although a video section of our site would be dedicated to clips that catch the stars fumbling
around in their ignorance—similar to The Tonight Show's Jaywalking segment, I’ll put more
emphasis on videos that portray celebrities in a philanthropic role. The possibility of those
videos going viral will help the site reach a wider audience. However, as reported by Forbes,
“Having a piece of content go viral is like winning the Internet’s version of the lottery. It’s
incredibly difficult to achieve and often hard to replicate. For every viral video success, there
are dozens, if not hundreds, of failures (Pozen 2014).” But striving for virality is not futile. As
stated in the same article, taking the step of showing celebrities in a good light can increase the
odds of the video being shared widely because, “the most sharable content tended to be that
which had a positive or upbeat note and the more inspirational [a story] is, the more your
audience will want to share it with others.”
The people’s love of feel-good content was illustrated with the virality of Pharrell
Williams’music video for his hit song, “Happy.” Much of the half-billion views and counting
are attributed to social media shares and the video made international headlines when Iranian
social media users shared their version of the infectiously joyous video and were subsequently
arrested by authorities (Rezaian 2014). Pharrell Williams weighed in on the incarceration of the
young citizens of Tehran, saying, “It's beyond sad these kids were arrested for trying to spread
happiness.” The critique of Iran’s political system that followed the public outrage this arrest
caused is politics. Williams lending his support to the dancers and producers of the viral video
is what makes it pop—hence PopThePolitcs.
18
As proven by Ben Affleck taking Bill Maher to task on Islam, a celebrity making valid political
points can also drive virality. The YouTube clip of the debate clocks in at more than 1 million
views as of October 7, 2014 (YouTube 2014). Adding this type of content to the mix will round
out our video offerings.
In addition to celebrities on the red carpet of various Hollywood events like the Oscars
commenting on current events and politics, I will include other original content:
• One-on-one interviews with me or another politically savvy host and a celebrity
discussing politics or a politician discussing pop culture with an entertainment whiz.
• Videos of former/current charismatic politicians interviewing celebrities, e.g.,
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa interviewing actress Eva Longoria. Or actors who have
played presidents sit down with former presidents, e.g., Chris Rock (Head of State)
interviewing Bill Clinton.
• Articles that link politicians and celebrities, as with the case of trailblazer Jason
Collins. A wide array of public figures remarked on his coming out as the first
openly gay NBA player. We’d cover their commentary and well wishes.
• Exclusives in the form of scandal and salacious stories. Who’s the latest
congressman hiking the Appalachian Trail? This type of scoop will require procured
19
insiders—sources from the Beltway—or like the Gawker exclusive that exposed a
married GOP congressman who took to Craigslist to search for hookups, we receive
the info. (or forwarded email) from the woman on the other end of the illicit
flirtation (O’Connor 2011).
• Photo galleries that detail celebrities' political affiliations, a gallery of celebrities
who’ve seen their popularity decline upon revealing their politics, a gallery of
celebrity political tweets and photos with heads of state, etc.
• Quizzes that ask “What Would Your Political Scandal Be?” And listicles with
content such as “Roseanne Barr and 10 More Celebs Who Ran For Office,” or
Celebrities Sound Off on Their Top 3 Political TV Shows,” and “13 Incredibly
Insane Celebrity Contributions to Political Campaigns!”
In targeting content to my soon-to-be discussed demographic, I’m in agreement with
the Guardian article that stated, “Younger audiences, with their alleged shorter
attention spans, have driven the demand for listicles that deliver bite-sized, easily
scan-read information that's also easily shareable across social media (Lawlor
2013).” Stephen Hull, executive editor of Huffington Post UK further stated content
must be produced in a myriad of ways, "be that video-encrypted pieces, image
slideshows or lists. Listicles make up just part of that much bigger picture.” And
listicles drive up page views and impressions, thereby driving up the PopThePolitics
revenue stream.
20
• Funny political videos of the day like President Barack Obama sitting down with
actor/comedian Zach Galifianakis for episode 18 of "Between Two Ferns," as a last
minute push to get Americans to sign up for healthcare.
• And since many thespians and musicians from Julianne Moore with the Tuberous
Sclerosis Alliance to Alicia Keys with Keep a Child Alive have causes,
PopThePolitics will highlight their platforms and various works with charities in list
form. But day-in-the-life videos of celebrities stumping for their cause will also be
featured. Though we’re providing a platform for them overall.
• Dems vs. Republicans: A compilation of “best of” lists, including an index of the
registered celebrity Democrats and celebrity Republicans, how much they’ve
contributed to either party, their most controversial political statements, etc. as
standalone resources to complement the previously mentioned photo galleries.
According to Poynter, resource lists like this are typically in bookmark-friendly
single pages and have good shelf life. “Want to be featured or get the top buzz on
Yahoo? Make a list. Want to drive page views and lower your bounce rate? Make a
list. Want to get tweeted? Make a list. Want to get stories written about your
organization? Make a list,” a 2009 post revealed. Adding, “Lists are the equivalent
of ‘viral videos’ for blogs and twitter (Johnson 2009).” Those browsing the web for
‘Celebrity Republicans’ will find it on PopThePolitics and know they can use these
curated lists for future reference, resulting in visitors coming back to the site and
21
hopefully finding some new information they find interesting to peruse during their
return.
In summary, content presented in various multimedia forms will be supplied by a growing
network of contributors in addition to original material by the founder and editor-in-chief, me.
Unpaid Contributors will be invited to submit queries and articles that provide engaging content
to our target audience. In exchange, the contributor will be provided with an opportunity to
showcase their work on a platform with a wider audience than their personal blog or diary.
Aggregation will include a link to the original content with a fresh spin on the item by our site’s
writers. Eventually, PopThePolitics will scale down this category of content in favor of more
original and copyrighted content featuring paid bloggers and celebrity contributors.
22
3. Competitive Analysis
In researching digital newsroom competitors fielding the celeb-political arena, I found there is
currently no site with content solely devoted to presenting politics through the lens of celebrity,
although there was an attempt.
It was announced in 2010 that Hollywood production company BermanBraun (now Whalerock
Industries) was joining forces with MSNBC Digital to extend their Wonderwall online celebrity
brand to politics with a site named BLTWY. “Politicians have now become part of popular
culture, and de-facto celebrities, attracting considerable media attention,” MSNBC said in a
news release. The network added, “BermanBraun and the MSNBC Digital Network announced
a partnership to create an original destination site which will go beyond policy and polls to
explore the celebrity side of politics…It will take you inside the beltway to explore the lives of
politicians as celebrities,” (Swisher 2010).
But the site that promised to give political figures the celebrity treatment—focused on what
they’re wearing, who they’re dating (and divorcing), and where they’re vacationing never
moved past the announcement phase.
BLTWY’s failure to launch doesn’t concern me because unlike them, attempting to turn the big
players on Capitol Hill into Hollywood types worthy of a paparazzi-like following is not the
intent with my content. PopThePolitics is going in a decidedly different direction. I don’t want
23
to create celebrities out of politicians. I plan to make mundane policy and humdrum political
subject matter more attractive to audiences who are typically tuned out. By bringing established
famous faces, their views, opinions and political maneuverings into the banal civic discourse
already occurring, I will succeed in splicing pop culture in with politics.
Since I’m looking to lure audiences away from traditional pop culture and celebrity news
driven websites like People, E!Online, TMZ and others who touch on the political and celebrity
convergence mainly when major news items occur—e.g., Beyoncé lip synching at the
inauguration, it’s more important to focus on my desired audience’s existing suppliers of a
more broad category of entertainment news and what generates their high traffic numbers
(Shultz 2013).
According to the internal E!Online performance overview for April 2014, the top five core
entertainment new sites are TMZ, E!Online, USMagazine, People and Gawker in that order, as
reported by comScore (E!Online 2014).
The biggest traffic get for E!Online is the photos section, as each click-through counts as a page
view and bolsters monthly uniques. The photos with the highest engagement in April included
the day’s hot pics, star sightings, the royal family, and various award show galleries (E!Online
2014). Using this information, I know that I will need to create slideshows that contain this
same content as an audience draw, but with a political slant.
24
With no insider information on the four remaining entertainment news sites, I’m relying on
their audience demographics for insight and one interesting find via Quantcast profiles is that
People, Gawker and TMZ all skew Democrat with many in the Gawker readership being active
voters. All of the outlets, but Gawker, enjoy a large following of women in their audience. In
addition, the top 5 entertainment outlets have a large college-educated readership with many
obtaining graduate degrees. In fact, People’s audience is made up of 80% who have pursued
higher education (Quantcast 2014).
My success in launching a more thoughtful approach to entertainment news relies on this type
of audience desiring political/celebrity coverage outside of presidential election years. My
stand-alone celebrity-focused political site will take more than standard user metrics into
consideration, as educational level, political affiliation and political engagement are key in
establishing readers beyond the coveted Millennial generation.
Lastly, direct competitors to PopThePolitics don’t currently exist, but there’s nothing
prohibiting incumbent media organizations like E!Online from undermining my achievements
and creating a vertical that mimics my site when it becomes a success. By that time, I plan to
have established a loyal core readership and following that includes celebrity
bloggers/contributors that will distinguish my site from copycats and sustain PopThePolitics’
leverage as pioneers in a venture that failed for at least one other.
25
4. Audience Analysis
Would an 18-year-old student athlete who is more concerned with President Obama’s Final
Four picks for NCAA March Madness than his stance on the Russia/Ukraine conflict be more
inclined to pay attention if hot, young Wolf of Wall Street starlet Margot Robbie weighed in?
Would a 23-year-old foodie and fashionista who is more interested in Hillary Clinton’s favorite
flavor of frozen yogurt or choice of smart phone than the former First Lady’s congressional
hearing on Benghazi listen up if chart-topper Beyoncé had something to say about it?
Popthepolitcs.com sets out to answer these questions and bring those already interested in
celebrity news into the political fold.
The audience for this content is the established pop culture enthusiast that already frequents
entertainment news sites such as Yahoo Celebrity, TMZ, Wonderwall, E!Online, and People.
According to an April 2014 report compiled from Alexa, Compete and Quantcast data, the
previously mentioned sites average between 23 million and 50 million unique monthly visitors
(eBizMBA 2013). With Yahoo Celebrity (formerly omg! Yahoo!) reaching 32.4 million
unique monthly visitors in November 2013 (Spangler 2013) and E!Online scoring a record high
of 20 million unique monthly visitors in October 2013 (Kondolojy 2013), the numbers indicate
that the 2009 comScore pronouncement that “more Americans [are] reading entertainment news
online,” still holds true, albeit with one present-day caveat.
Jack Flanagan, the executive vice president of the global leader in measuring the digital world
stated over five years ago, “With more than one out of every four US Internet users visiting an
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entertainment news site each month, it’s clear that following entertainment and celebrity culture
has become a popular online pastime.” Adding, “What’s also interesting is that Americans are
feeding their hunger for celebrity gossip by ‘snacking’ on these news updates throughout the
workday. In fact, nearly half of all time spent on entertainment news sites comes from work
computers (Radwankick 2009).”
Americans are still whetting their pop culture appetites in 2014, yet they are increasingly
choosing different means of getting their fill of celebrity dish throughout the day. There’s no
need to surreptitiously sneak a glance at the latest Amanda Bynes news on their work desktop
when their boss isn’t looking because their pop culture news fix is right at their fingertips.
According to tech expert and venture capitalist, Mary Meeker, “There were more than 2.4
billion Internet users worldwide by the end of 2012, up 8 percent from the previous year,” and
even more remarkable was the increase in mobile users, “There are about 1.5 billion global
subscribers, up from 1.1 billion a year before. That represents about 30 percent growth (Lawler
2013). At the unveiling of her annual Internet Trends report, Meeker also said “mobile usage
continued to grow, making up about 15 percent of all Internet traffic, compared with 10 percent
a year before.”
Concurrently, mobile consumption of news media is sharply on the rise as more Americans
acquire smartphones and tablets. In E!Online’s April 2014 internal performance overview, it’s
documented that “mobile continues to fuel audience growth, more than tripling vs. last year and
surpassing desktop for the sixth month. Mobile composition is now 62% of multiplatform
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(E!Online 2014).”
E!Online was number the top desktop destination site with Young Affluents (18-34 with a
household income of $100k+) at the time of the report, with yearly gains in Millennials seeing a
momentous increase (E!Online 2014). PopThePolitics naturally covets this demo as much as
the next digital property, so my outreach efforts will attempt to pull from this market segment
initially and extend to other demographics once these influential individuals are on board.
Because the PopThePolitics brand understands the importance of not limiting the eyeballs
seeking our content to those skewing young and rich, our thoughtful approach to entertainment
news hopes to entice the masses to follow along to see what the fuss is about once we’ve won
over that ideal Millennial niche. Additional possible audience members include politicians
looking to leverage their appeal amongst the youth, celebrities wanting to increase their
political clout, and politically minded individuals who have long been engaged in the Beltway
trenches. The latter doesn’t need current events spoon-fed to them, but they may enjoy the tasty
snark and commentary even so.
The road to successful marketing is paved with knowing your audience. Having already
determined my core audience will mostly be made up of pop culture enthusiasts who already
follow entertainment news—mostly via mobile devices—the task is to divert their pop culture
interests to policy, politics, and current events seen through the celebrity lens outside of the
standard coverage that occurs during presidential election years. Targeting this influential and
expanding population segment consisting of college students, young professionals, and
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celebrity devotees already bombarded with entertainment news sites vying for their clicks and
page views will require an appeal that hits them where they already live—on social media—and
I’m beginning my PopThePolitics campaign by knocking on their Facebook front door and
buzzing around their Twitter feeds.
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5. Strategies and Determining Success
With an intended launch date of August 15, 2015, PopThePolitics has set series of one-year goals
with user metrics revisited repeatedly throughout that year as we tweak our methods and
strategies leading up to 2016. By 2016 I would like to reach at least 40% the audience base
E!Online commands and generate approximately 40% of their general news traffic. The goal of
native advertising will be considered after year one and based on our audience reach. Upon
launch, I plan to present 20 pages of original content, exclusive of links to outside content, but
the bulk of the site will be aggregated news. From there, the site’s intent is as follows:
• To achieve an average rate of 17,108,000 page views per month in the first year.
• To achieve a rate of 8,625,000 unique visitors per month in the first year.
• To achieve a 2% or higher rate of click-throughs per month on Google Search upon
initial launch.
• To utilize social media platforms effectively to build audience base.
• 100 shares and likes on Facebook per month after launch.
• 100 monthly follower increase on Twitter/Tumblr after launch.
• To establish PopThePolitics as a branded content strategist for trusted partners via native
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advertising as a source of revenue (after Year 1).
The numbers above were calculated by taking 40% of the highest combined desktop/mobile
“general news” traffic month & 40% of the highest recorded month for unique visitors found in
E!Online’s internal performance overview with data by comScore (E!Online 2014). I plan on
achieving the preceding goal numbers primarily through social media outreach—organic and
purchased.
Content will be king at PopThePolitics, but distribution through social media networks is equally
important in online journalism today—especially for entertainment news via Facebook (Matsa,
Mitchell 2014). Differentiating ourselves from the current mainstay players will require
PopThePolitics to be the site suggested and curated by trusted sources. As previously outlined in
my audience, content and competition analysis, shareability and virality through social media
platforms will be vital to our existence because the social platforms are determining much of
what audiences read.
"The one thing that gets lost in all the automation and search engine gaming algorithms is that
people want to know what their friends think and what people respect. One way to get content in
front of you is to have your friends recommend it; that's a social filtering of news,” said James
Brady, while serving as the executive editor of washingtonpost.com right before stepping down
in 2008 (Emmett 2009). And the latest research on social media trends proves this to still be true.
Facebook is driving heavy traffic to news sites. And as reported by the Pew Research Journalism
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Project entertainment news tops the list of topics 73% of Facebook news consumers report
seeing. This is followed by ‘people and events in my community,’ sports, national government
and politics, crime, health and medicine, and local government and politics (Sass 2014).”
Moreover, Facebook news consumers are also distinctly youthful – younger, even, than the base
Facebook demographic.
In the social media space, Facebook news consumers tend to like, share, and comment on the fun
stories, cute images, and entertaining videos that appear in their news feed and in turn traffic is
driven to the originating news site so social media will work to build the site’s audience. It’s not
the place for the hard stuff. Matt Heindl, full-service digital agency Razorfish’s senior director of
social media marketing, said “Facebook is a place for friends and family and fun. People want it
to be their happy place,” in discussing the content that’s popular on the social media site
(McDermott 2014).
Laying out the difference between Facebook and Twitter, made more obvious by the lack of
news updates in Facebook user’s feeds during the Ferguson, Mo. protests, Brad Stone of
Businessweek explained why the Facebook algorithm tends to present more uplifting stories (or
ice bucket challenge videos). “When presented with a choice between watching a cat video or a
city tear-gassing its populace, most people are going to click on the cat video (Stone 2014).” The
Facebook algorithm, in turn, gives the people what it thinks they want.
Known for their carefree cat videos and with 183 million monthly unique visitors as of October
2014, BuzzFeed has mastered this concept (Quantcast 2014). They know how to make content
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go viral as soon as a link hits the web. The successful site is built around “being a part of the
conversation,” per editor-in-chief Ben Smith. “[BuzzFeed's strategy] is not built around building
a loyal, returning audience. The site’s writers and editors develop content that people want to
share so that a story reaches all those it “should” reach. It may well be a completely different
audience from one story to the next (Zhang 2014).”
And with one of PopThePolitics strategies for building an audience being capitalizing on
celebrity conversations happening around timely current events and political issues, I’ll employ
their primary strategy to leverage social media and boost virality. Yet, attaining BuzzFeed’s
level of traffic is not my goal, as they deal in a variety of topics and verticals. Moreover,
PopThePolitics wants to not only attract temporary eyeballs, but also build a loyal audience that
returns.
But I will utilize a crucial tactic that BuzzFeed applies to drive virality and that is buying ads on
Facebook and across all social media platforms. BuzzFeed works with advertisers as partners and
hosts/writes their sponsored content, which is similar to the publication’s original content. Then
“BuzzFeed pays to place sponsored posts in Facebook’s news feed and on other social-
networking sites,” and this helps them sell their site to businesses as the ideal platform for native
advertising (Bump 2013). “When BuzzFeed needs more [people to see a post] it buys more ads
on Facebook.” And they tend to buy more sponsored ad space on Facebook when Verizon,
Dunkin Donuts, etc. have purchased the posts that need to be seen vs. their in-house journalism
produced by staffers.
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Social Media platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn enable advertisers to create ads and
position them on targeted users’ profiles. Facebook, LinkedIn, & Twitter would enable
PopThePolitics to narrow down the target demographic by selecting attributes of their profiles.
In July of 2013, Twitter began testing Tailored Audience Advertising, a product similar to
Facebook Custom Audiences, that lets brands create custom audience segments and then find
those people on Twitter. The offering became generally available in December 2013.
Paying for these types of posts on Facebook or Promoted Tweets on Twitter increases visibility
and buzz for the site while also driving traffic. I believe this to be an important step to the site
being discovered at launch. I will create posts for Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter and monitor each
campaign’s performance and tweak as needed. Climbing traffic numbers, in turn, will help
PopThePolitics rank higher on the Google and Bing search results page.
And it doesn’t need to be a huge financial outlay at the beginning. With Facebook, I can boost
my posts, promote my PopThePolitics page, increase attendance at an event, and most important
of all, send people to my site for a price I set. According to their ad manager, I can choose
between a daily or a lifetime budget, as well as a cost per thousand impressions bid or cost per
click bid and only pay for the clicks or impressions I receive, up to the amount I allocated for my
budget.
On the other hand, I can use Twitter’s Tailored Audience Advertising to reach users on Twitter
who have shown interest in my site utilizing their browser cookie IDs. Twitter has also started
34
using look-alike-only targeting to only target users similar to a site’s or brand’s tailored
audiences. Citing Hubspot as a success story, Twitter reported the Internet marketing company
saw an increase of engagement of 45% over their historical averages by using Promoted Tweets
and tailored audience campaigns (Shrivastava 2013).
Along with Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts, and Facebook ads, my social media
strategies must be able navigate everything from YouTube, Vine, Foursquare – and startups on
the rise. I will stay up-to-date on emerging technologies and produce content that’s authentic to
each particular platform. I can't be on Pinterest if I’m not producing content that's authentic to
Pinterest.
At launch it is imperative that I drive traffic through activities such as search-based advertising
and social media promotions. But it’s also necessary to incorporate relevant influencers via
influencer marketing that can inspire action and assist us in reaching new audiences with brand
messages that are credible and trusted. The influencers are made up of celebrities, publishers,
fans and friends—each with varying degrees of reach and influence.
Once I begin drawing in an audience I can then analyze traffic to understand where the visitors
are coming from and how they interact with the site. Am I getting more push from celebrities or
fans and friends of the site? Using that data, I can better determine how my audience is engaged
with the unique celeb & politics-centric content.
Additionally, by the agency of data I can deduce trends, analyze the volume and sentiment of a
35
conversation surrounding an event, and even train algorithms to understand phrases with double
meanings like, “That’s insane!” By knowing where readers fall off, using in-page analytics and
heat maps, I can figure out where my visitors are clicking (or not clicking) and determine what is
causing their disinterest. I can then go in and tweak those pages, galleries or interactives and
decrease the fall off and bounce rate of my audience.
With these social media listening tools enacted I can better hone an influencer marketing
program by focusing less on (oh, this high-profile person has a massive Klout score—let me get
her to talk about my site) to a carefully targeted (oh, this person has spoken ad nauseam about
topic A and she pays attention to these three people – let me get those three in her circle to talk
about my site), if necessary.
This integration of messaging, content, audience engagement, and social media distribution in
my marketing and promotions strategy coupled with performance measurement to determine if
I’ve met my Year 1 benchmarks and what goals to set for Year 2.
Social media will also play a major role in our rollout and promotion of the site, providing a
pathway for audiences to reach PopThePolitics content. And due to the rise in mobile users--with
many of them landing on story pages via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media, rather than
the homepage, people reading news on phones or tablets are most likely find interesting content
not just through their friends, but also via the Twitter feeds of curators who are likely to share
interesting content.
36
The PopThePolitics Twitter page is up and pulls political pertinent posts from verified star
accounts known to share their worldviews. From day-to-day the follower count averages 751
with infrequent retweets and favorites so engagement must be boosted. Paying for a promoted
profile once the site is live will encourage more follows and a bigger audience in which to
interact. And once we get a Twitter follower to a PopThePolitics story page, the challenge will
be keeping them.
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Conclusion
According to Marketing Sherpa, “Visitors spend an average of just eight seconds before deciding
whether or not to remain on a website (Berry 2013).”
Popthepolitics.com’s action plan for keeping visitors engaged on our site long after their initial
count of eight includes, but is not limited to:
• High Quality Content & Design: Identify and exploit sources of quality content
through aggregation. The primary website and all subsequent sites will emphasize
celebrity-driven content which is of the highest quality and appealing to the target
audience. PopThePolitics will not overpopulate pages with busy content, choosing to
focus on images and short punchy text for the headlines to draw readers in. I’ve noticed
the top visited sites aren’t necessarily the best designed, but they have other verticals
and media properties that provide a built-in audience. We won’t have that so our site
must put a lot of effort in creating an attractive user interface that pulls in readers.
• Usability: Create and test the site’s architecture, navigation, and readability to ensure
our brand is delivering the best value, ease of use, and coveted branded content.
Optimize the site by determining which combinations of site content and design drive
the most conversions. Closely follow our analytics to measure increasing conversion
rates, decreasing bounce rates, observe engagement once a reader is on the site.
• Community: Attain the targeted number of visits and click-throughs. Build a
community of readers that come specifically to popthepolitics.com for their current
38
event and political news because they trust us to be the primary site echoing the
celebrity voice on a multitude of pertinent topics.
• Credibility: Accurately and adeptly report the full breadth of the facts even as the scope
of worldwide events is reduced to these famous individuals and their perspectives. At
the same time, are we wrangling the celebrity stumpers and bloggers we approached?
Are those voices distinguishing us from the sites strictly reporting on their love lives,
baby bumps, etc.?
• Reputation: Generate organic traffic to the site through linkability, virality, word-of-
mouth, and appearances on reputable daytime/nighttime talk shows and newsshows to
establish a reputation as subject matter experts and pundits pontificating on behalf of
celebrities. EX. As the 2016 national election approaches have one of our media
personalities guest star on The Wendy Williams Show to discuss which celebrities are
stumping for which candidate, who to expect at the Democrats vs. Republicans national
conventions, what the celebrities are doing to get out the vote, the latest political
scandal, campaign tactics, etc.
• Maximizing Traffic: Analyze our social media campaigns as soon as they’re
implemented. Are we driving traffic with search-based advertising and website
promotions? Are we meeting our KPI goals of monthly visitors and page views? Is it
money well spent? If not, how can we better monitor and maximize our social media
strategies?
39
Pew recently noted that political engagement on social networking sites is “especially
commonplace among the youngest Americans, as two-thirds (67%) of all 18-24 year olds (and
nearly three quarters of those young adults who use social networking sites) engaged in some
sort of social network-related political activity” in the 12 months preceding their May 2013
survey.
Young American adults are our target demographic and those more likely to engage in political
behaviors on social networking sites may be the same ones inclined to get more political
knowledge on PopThePolitics. Those survey numbers combined with the comScore data I’ve
researched for celebrity niche news is a happy confluence of engagement, both political and
celebrity driven.
People are engaged and with my objective of driving the discussion on politics, current events,
and world affairs through the celebrity lens, my site will lead the conversation soon after the
fallout of the midterm elections, during the buildup to the 2016 presidential election and beyond.
If I can just garner a small fraction of this celebrity driven news market dominated by E!Online
and others of its ilk, and divert their interests to policy, politics, and current events through the
celebrity lens with the approach and methods I just outlined, then I can make PopThePolitics a
success with more than dynamic article pages, photo galleries, interactive polling, social-media
integration and videos—I will make politics figuratively pop off the page!
40
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“Top 15 Most Popular Celebrity Gossip Websites.” eBizMBA | The eBusiness Guide.
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/gossip-websites (accessed April 4, 2014).
44
“Youngest Americans Are the Most Politically Active on Social Networking Sites.” Pew
Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/youngest-americans-are-the-most-
politically-active-on-social-networking-sites/ (accessed April 4, 2014).
Zhang, Mona. “How Valuable are Social Referrals to News Sites?” SocialTimes.
http://socialtimes.com/valuable-social-referrals-news-sites_b144827 (accessed October 7, 2014).
45
Appendix A: PopThePolitics Homepage Layout
46
This homepage mockup will not be the final version of the site, as it was created to give a visual
feel to the PopThePolitics site that will be responsive to the platform on which it’s viewed, e.g.,
tablet, mobile phone, etc.
Header:
More and more readers are accessing sites via mobile devices, but I feel it’s still important to
have a visually appealing homepage. The header will include our logo (still needs to be
designed), company name (Pop The Politics) and tagline (Where Politics Pops).
Proposed Section Heads:
Home: Simple, clean, colorful, and easy to navigate.
Photos: I will use file names for my images that contain keywords related to my site’s content,
as this will help my SEO.
Scandals, also, WTF News, Really?!, NSFW, etc:
These headings will replace the static, boring “News” heading, but I haven’t decided on the final
version.
Exclusives: As implied, this will house our original and/or exclusive content.
Dems vs. Republicans: A list, an index, of the registered celebrity Democrats and celebrity
Republicans and their individual causes.
Meet Ups or Live Events: Live events and links to streaming “Pop Talk Live” with hosts and
celebrities that will vary.
Tips or Tell Us More: This will be the section where we ask for input from our readers.
47
Appendix B: E!Online Celeb + Political Stories
Here’s a celeb-centric political story I pitched to E! that wasn’t pressing or breaking news
covered by major outlets at the time—just a fun story obtained by following celeb social media
accounts.
Content similar to this would be present on PopThePolitics.
Katy Perry Offers Hillary Clinton a Song at Book Signing While Mindy Kaling Hangs
With Another Clinton!
Posted to E!Online on Jun. 20, 2014
Katy Perry is no stranger to mixing and mingling with politicians!
48
In addition to singing for President Barack Obama (and taking pics with him and her
grandmother), the award-winning singer has also dined with the first lady, scolded an Australian
opposition leader and lent her support to a Congressional candidate.
This time, the "Dark Horse" singer got cozy with Hillary Clinton at the former Secretary of
State's book signing for her new memoir, Hard Choices.
All smiles while holding a copy of Clinton's political tome, Perry shared a photo on Instagram of
the pair's powwow and revealed her offer to make the possible 2016 presidential candidate a
campaign song, writing, "I told @hillaryclinton that I would write her a "theme" song if she
needs it..."
Meanwhile, Mindy Kaling also took to Instagram to post her fun encounter with Hillary's
daughter, Chelsea Clinton. The two were attending Google's Made With Code kickoff event.
Held at a Manhattan loft with New York-area high school girls in attendance, the $50 million
initiative seeks to introduce women to coding through a variety of activities.
Joking "Always cool to meet young fans. Hee hee hee #madewithcode photo by @flyingtv," the
Mindy Project star was seemingly referring more to the former first daughter than she was the
technology-driven young ladies.
PHOTOS: Check out more Hollywood stars getting political!
49
Appendix C: Young Democrats vs. Republicans Social Media Study
“Young Democrats are more active than Republicans on almost every major social-media
platform, according to a new study published [April 29, 2014] by Harvard's Institute of Politics.
Facebook was most popular amongst both parties, with 87% of Democrats and Republicans
using the social-media giant. The Institute of Politics surveyed 3,058 Americans aged 18 to 29
(Golden 2014).” It was found that “college students use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest,
Snapchat and Tumblr all more than young Americans who are not, or have never been, enrolled.”
50
Appendix D: Twitter Tailored Ad Approach (Source: Twitter)
51
Appendix E: Marketing Influencers
Source: http://influencermarketingreview.com
“Influence isn’t just having a lot of followers. It’s also driven by expertise and credibility on
subject matter and the relationship between the influencer and his or her followers.”
“Instead of simply looking at followers, a better equation for brands to consider is the following:
Influence = Audience Reach (# of followers) x Brand Affinity (expertise and credibility) x
Strength of Relationship with Followers (Wong 2014).”
52
Appendix F: Revenue Sources & Financials of Business Plan
PopThePolitics will generate revenue through advertisements and sponsorships on the website
initially. As traffic grows, the site can command more ad revenue from a variety of sources, but
Year 1 will be limited in advertising options as traffic to the site is built.
Paid Per Click Advertising – Google AdSense
Pay-per-click advertising through Google AdSense is expected to generate about $197,881 in
total income by year five (Y5). Relevant ads are generated by AdSense based on the content of
the website. The bids for relevant ads vary according to the topic. We have based the revenue
estimates on overall traffic on similar websites, but lessened the page views per day considerably
to account for launching as an unknown. The calculations for CPM are based from actual
effective Cost Per Thousand earnings.
Rough Estimate Example:
(Y1)Page Views per Day: 22,000
Effective CPM: $2.50
Annual Revenue: $20,000
53
Media Kit Mock-Up:
ADVERTISING UNITS
gross
cpm
Banner (468 x 60, 12k file size)
ROS (run-of-site)
Targeted sections
$5
$7
Portal (150 x 150, 10k file size)
PopThePolitics front door
$6
Vertical Unit (120 x 240, 12k file size)
ROS (run-of-site)
Targeted sections
$5
$7
Skyscraper (120 x 600, 18k file size)
ROS (run-of-site) and Targeted sections
$6
Unicast Superstitial (450x450, 100k file
size)
ROS (run-of-site)
$7
Large Index Page Unit (370 x 75, 12K file
size)
Targeted index pages
$5
SPECIAL SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES*
• exclusive, live event webcasts/podcasts
• special events: awards shows and film festivals
• live celebrity chats
• special editorial features
• unique, interactive games
• weekly newsletter**
• daily politix newsletter***
*rates vary per sponsorship opportunity
**290,000 opt-in subscribers
***210,000 guaranteed registered users
$17 gross cpm
$9 gross cpm
$9 gross cpm
Creative Executions
54
Financial Forecast
55
Income Statement: First Four Quarters:
Assumptions:
! Money will be spent at beginning of first period in order to develop and build webpage.
! There will be an event launch when the site will be inaugurated as well as one after six months of
operating.
! Other costs include costs to set up LLC and other legal expenses.
! Depreciation includes cost of furniture & computers.
! Most of the advertisement will be done when webpage is launched.
! During first year there will be only one employee on payroll, all other will be temporary employees.
Total&Y1
Income Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Advertisement $ $ $ $ $
Pay per Click $2,387 $4,225 $7,204 $9,532 $23,348
CPM*(cost*per*Mill) $2,190 $4,025 $6,004 $8,332 $20,551
Total&Income $4,577 $8,250 $13,208 $17,864 $43,899
Costs
Marketing & Sales
Advertisement $5,632 $1,704 $1,502 $1,502 $10,340
Events $10,344 $0 $4,524 $0 $14,868
Research & and
Development
Programmers & Web
developers
$12,638 $1,123 $1,123 $1,123
$16,007
General & Administrative
Payroll $8,000 $8,000 $8,000 $8,000 $32,000
Rent $3,444 $3,444 $3,444 $3,444 $13,776
Insurance $255 $255 $255 $255 $1,020
Other $1,000 $700 $700 $679 $3,079
Total Costs $41,313 $15,226 $24,501 $15,003 $96,043
Depreciation $500 $500 $500 $500 $2,000
Pre-Tax Profit $0
Tax $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
NET INCOME 8$36,736 8$6,976 8$11,293 $2,861 8$52,144
Y1
56
Balance Sheet:
Year%1
Cash 20,000.00 $************ AP 10,000.00 $*******
AR 5,000.00 $************** Short*Term*Debt $0
Intangible*Assets 15,000.00 $************ Long*Term*Debt $0
Technological*Assets 10,000.00 $************ Equity* 40,000.00 $*******
Total*Assets 50,000.00 $************ Total*Liabilities*&*Capital 50,000.00 $*******
Year%2
Cash 10,000.00 $************ AP 12,000.00 $*******
AR 7,000.00 $************** Short*Term*Debt $0
Intangible*Assets 25,000.00 $************ Long*Term*Debt $0
Technological*Assets 10,000.00 $************ Equity* 40,000.00 $*******
Total*Assets 52,000.00 $************ Total*Liabilities*&*Capital 52,000.00 $*******
Year%3
Cash 10,000.00 $************ AP 8,000.00 $*********
AR 3,000.00 $************** Short*Term*Debt $0
Intangible*Assets 25,000.00 $************ Long*Term*Debt $0
Technological*Assets 15,000.00 $************ Equity* 45,000.00 $*******
Total*Assets 53,000.00 $************ Total*Liabilities*&*Capital 53,000.00 $*******
Year%4
Cash 5,000.00 $************** AP 10,000.00 $*******
AR 5,000.00 $************** Short*Term*Debt $0
Intangible*Assets 30,000.00 $************ Long*Term*Debt $0
Technological*Assets 20,000.00 $************ Equity* 50,000.00 $*******
Total*Assets 60,000.00 $************ Total*Liabilities*&*Capital 60,000.00 $*******
Year%5
Cash 20,000.00 $************ AP 10,000.00 $*******
AR 5,000.00 $************** Short*Term*Debt $0
Intangible*Assets 30,000.00 $************ Long*Term*Debt 15,000.00 $*******
Technological*Assets 20,000.00 $************ Equity* 50,000.00 $*******
Total*Assets 75,000.00 $************ Total*Liabilities*&*Capital 75,000.00 $*******
Assumptions:
! Debt will not be used as financing until 5
th
year in order to grow.
! The company will keep $5,000 in cash and marketable securities at all times.
! Technological assets will keep growing throughout periods as money is invested to develop those assets.
! Intangible assets value will increase, as brand will become more recognized and valued as time passes.
! AP and AR will increase as the business matures.
57
5 Year Income Statement:
Y1
Y2
Y3
Y4
Y5
Income
Advertisement
$
$
$
$
$
Pay-‐per-‐Click
$23,348
$41,239
$53,611
$69,694
$83,633
CPM
(Cost-‐per-‐Mill)
$20,551
$52,002
$67,603
$87,883
$114,248
Total
Income
$43,899
$93,241
$121,214
$157,577
$197,881
Costs
Marketing
&
Sales
Advertisement
$10,340
$10,340
$7,890
$5,040
$2,080
Events
$14,868
$3,030
$3,030
$3,030
$3,030
Research
&
Development
Programmers
&
Web
developers
$16,007
$10,528
$12,634
$15,160
$18,192
General
&
Administrative
Payroll
$32,000
$51,809
$65,089
$71,598
$78,758
Rent
$13,776
$13,776
$13,776
$13,776
$18,908
Insurance
$1,020
$1,020
$1,020
$1,020
$1,580
Other
$3,079
$3,695
$4,434
$5,321
$6,385
Total
Costs
$96,043
$94,198
$107,872
$114,945
$129,993
Depreciation
$2,000
$2,000
$2,000
$2,000
$2,000
Pre-‐Tax
Profit
$0
-‐$957
$13,342
$42,632
$67,888
Tax
$0
$0
$0
$0
$0
NET
INCOME
-‐$52,144
-‐$957
$13,342
$42,632
$67,888
Assumptions:
! First
year
has
increased
research
expenses,
as
website
has
to
be
completely
built,
as
well
as
marketing
expenses
are
higher
to
create
brand
awareness.
! After
second
year
company
will
start
earning
profits.
! Payroll
will
keep
increasing
because
as
company
grows
more
employees
will
need
to
be
hired.
! Advertisement
revenue
will
increase
sharply
in
first
two
years,
after
that
will
increase
at
a
steady
rate.
58
Appendix G: E!Online Internal Performance Review
59
60
61
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
Conceptualized during the fall semester of 2012, PopThePolitics (with the domain popthepolitics.com purchased at that time) is a news site with plans to cover politics and current events exclusively through the lens of celebrity. This thesis explores the strategies, tactics, benchmarks and content necessary to ensure its successful launch and subsequent achievement, as it becomes a major player amongst other self-sustaining digital newsrooms.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Benson, Chima Simone
(author)
Core Title
Pop the politics
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Specialized Journalism (The Arts)
Publication Date
04/16/2015
Defense Date
10/29/2014
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
celebrity,current events,digital newsroom,Entertainment,OAI-PMH Harvest,online publication,politics
Format
application/pdf
(imt)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Anawalt, Sasha (
committee chair
), Cooper, Marc (
committee member
), Murphy, Mary (
committee member
)
Creator Email
ccbenson@usc.edu,chimasimone@gmail.com
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-550636
Unique identifier
UC11297592
Identifier
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Legacy Identifier
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Dmrecord
550636
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Thesis
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Benson, Chima Simone
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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Tags
celebrity
current events
digital newsroom
online publication
politics