Freedom Communications Inc. has a new executive in charge of its struggling myOC.com with plans to relaunch the Web site in March and unveil a series of other changes in coming months.
Ginger Neal, a tested Freedom technology executive, was brought on in early January as myOC’s new chief executive and president. And she minces few words about the bygone days of dot-coms that gave birth to myOC.
“Thinking differently almost got confused with not thinking,” Neal said, referring to the shotgun business approach of online companies. “We got caught up in the dot-com frenzy and didn’t think about how we should run a business underneath all this.”
Lake Forest-based myOC is Freedom’s interactive bid. The site offers local news, weather, technology and other content, much of it from Freedom’s flagship Orange County Register. (See related story on this page.)
Neal, a 14-year Freedom employee, launched the Register’s site, oc-register.com, in 1996. Before that, she started ModeStyle.com, a site for Freedom’s Mode fashion magazine. Now she’s trying to instill a new reality at myOC.
Neal said she plans to take the business to the “next level” with a new look set to debut next month. The site also is partnering with a new Freedom-backed Web hosting and application service provider company.
“There’s a good solid foundation,” Neal said. “But we need to put plans in place to execute some growth. There hasn’t been real growth.”
N. Christian Anderson, the Register’s publisher and chief executive, said Neal was chosen because of her “take no prisoners” attitude and previous experience and success with ocregister.com.
“We have a lot of work to do to position (myOC.com) so we can be successful financially,” Anderson said. “This is the real world and we’re really trying to work hard at generating revenue and making it a viable company. That’s the challenge for us.”
MyOC, which formed in 1999 and launched last summer to complement ocregister.com, has seen its share of setbacks. The company’s official launch was delayed a few months after software troubles. Before the site was operational, a massive ad campaign pushing myOC’s fingerprint logo broke and blanketed Orange County buses and neighborhoods. But when visitors entered the site, they were told of myOC’s technology woes and re-directed to ocregister.com.
There have been other hurdles, including customer service and quality control glitches, such as busted links. And employees were spending freely, said a source familiar with myOC who asked not to be named.
Freedom’s troubles with myOC aren’t unusual. Other media companies are making changes to their online arms in a bid to become more efficient and profitable.
Last year, Tribune Interactive, which man ages Internet activities for the Tribune Co.’s newspapers and television stations, eliminated 80 positions and laid off 34 employees,20 of whom were from the Los Angeles Times site, latimes.com. Earlier this month, The New York Times Co. announced it would cut 69 positions, or 17 %, across its Web sites to hit profitability by 2002. That announcement came a year after Knight Ridder Inc. said it was trimming its online staff by 34 for the same reason. And, Walt Disney Co., Burbank, last week disbanded its internet group and discontinued its go.com portal. About 400 people were laid off in the move.
While life-sized cartoon characters decorate the floor at the myOC’s office, the air is distinctly serious these days. Neal said she is restructuring the business for growth and is looking for “innovative ways to make more money.” That’s not necessarily through banner ads, she said.
“(The Internet) is just another distribution channel,” she said. “You’re answering the same traditional question: How do I serve my customer better?”
Neal poised that question to myOC’s 60-person team recently. She spent her first weeks on the job meeting with each of myOC’s employees,a staff that has grown from about 26 when the site launched,to get a clear picture of what they do. She said she plans to restructure departments, particularly sales.
Neal said she doesn’t anticipate laying anyone off, though the company’s past chief executive, Paul Thiel, and an undisclosed number of employees were laid off last fall, a source familiar with myOC said.
Neal said she’s looking for results.
“I’m pretty demanding,” she said. “Business development and sales will be reviewed quarterly in regard to their objectives. In an environment like this, it’s the ability to execute that helps the business grow.”
That means revisiting things, trying new things and killing initiatives if they don’t work, she said.
“It’s just as important to kill something as it is to try and keep it growing,” Neal said.
In the next few months, users can expect the site to look different after logging on. Instead of appearing like a site for a newspaper with lots of links and teaser stories, it will try to capture the feel of OC by emphasizing its beaches, entertainment, businesses and lifestyle, Neal said.
And, though myOC will continue to access and leverage the Register’s content, it will begin generating its own unique coverage,something its community requested. The site, which acts as a portal linking to ocregister.com and other sites, generates original content on a small scale. But later, it plans to completely revamp its content, offering personalized features to its users, who will have to begin registering on the site.
Plus, myOC hopes to get out of a “banner ad paradigm” and lure advertisers by developing and offering integrated marketing programs, involving research services, direct marketing and profiling of customers, according to Neal.
“There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit in the business categories that we haven’t even addressed,” Neal said. “There are huge opportunities to get more interactive with our community, and one of the ways we’ll do that is by implementing additional services.”
Neal’s plans hinge on myOC’s ability to iron out its technology woes. The company scrapped its old software and is working on a new system that promises to make posting information easier and quicker, among other things.
Neal has hired one new programmer and is borrowing three others from Freedom to develop personalized versions of the site and user e-mail,things not currently offered.
Heavy lifting, however, is set to be done by myOC’s new hosting partner, a yet-to-be-named application service provider, jointly funded by Freedom and Greg Hurst, the service provider’s new chief executive and past president of Freedom Interactive Media.
The business, set to launch this month with 20 employees, is being housed in an 8,000-square-foot section of myOC’s Lake Forest location. By next year, the service provider’s head count is expected to hit 30.
“The main focus of the business will be high-quality Web hosting and e-commerce services geared toward small- to mid-sized businesses,” said Hurst, adding that several million dollars were invested to start the business. “The company will primarily provide private label services to companies such as myOC so that they can sell Web hosting to customers.”
With a service provider in-house, myOC hopes to offer a complete range of services from domain registration and Web site design to hosting and advertising. Plus, the move could save the company money. And, it will help other Freedom online properties that have experienced similar technology woes.
“Since Freedom’s core competency is in developing content and building communities, technology can often be an afterthought,” Hurst said.
Neal said she also plans to hone in on other key issues: learning more about customers and getting their feedback, leveraging the Register (already a good source of ad revenue for myOC) and ensuring that myOC sticks to its word.
“We need to make sure we execute what we promise to our community,” she said.
The real pressure, though, is on myOC’s team.
“Once I paint the vision, (the employees) are going to be the ones to climb the mountain,” Neal said. “They’ll have their marching orders and game plans for products they need to launch, for how business is going to function, for advertiser sales and product growth. My job is to take the company to the next level.” n
