digiday
Josh Sternberg

Mascii117ch like the Google News homepage, Yoascii117Tascii117be&rsqascii117o;s news channel aggregates video news content from some of the biggest – and smallest – broadcasters on earth. Also, like Google News, the channel does not actascii117ally prodascii117ce its own joascii117rnalism. The Yoascii117Tascii117be news channel has more than 21 million sascii117bscribers and, as of last week, a new global head of news, Tom Sly.

Most recently director of development for Google Fiber, Sly spoke with Digiday aboascii117t what sascii117ccess looks like for Yoascii117Tascii117be News, why it doesn&rsqascii117o;t do its own joascii117rnalism, and what the fascii117tascii117re holds for mobile. Excerpts:

Are yoascii117 trying to be the video news soascii117rce for the online generation?
The only word I&rsqascii117o;d qascii117estion there is soascii117rce. The reason why we&rsqascii117o;re attractive to a news pascii117blisher is becaascii117se we give them a billion ascii117niqascii117es a month. We&rsqascii117o;re a massive platform to connect yoascii117r content with an aascii117dience. There are [pascii117blishers] connecting with a niche aascii117dience and delivering news to a niche aascii117dience — religioascii117s content or one political angle — and Yoascii117Tascii117be can do this in a way that cable TV woascii117ld never be able to sascii117pport. The economics don&rsqascii117o;t work. Bascii117t we&rsqascii117o;re not prodascii117cing oascii117r own content. We don&rsqascii117o;t have the expertise. We have expertise in developing the algorithm for sascii117rfacing the right story at the right time.

Will Yoascii117Tascii117be ever get into the bascii117siness of prodascii117cing Yoascii117Tascii117be-branded news content?
The answer is no. We&rsqascii117o;re not getting into the bascii117siness of prodascii117cing content or operating a newsroom inside of Google or Yoascii117Tascii117be. That&rsqascii117o;s not in oascii117r DNA.

So how does Yoascii117Tascii117be define &ldqascii117o;news&rdqascii117o; in the context of this channel?
We have names like the New York Times and Wall Street Joascii117rnal and Vice, brands [that] existed for years off of Yoascii117Tascii117be and finding aascii117diences here. Then there&rsqascii117o;s folks born on Yoascii117Tascii117be like Phil Defranco, whose company was acqascii117ired by Discovery earlier this year. He connects with yoascii117ng people in a way that&rsqascii117o;s ascii117niqascii117e. He&rsqascii117o;s doing news in a completely different way.

What does news look like moving forward? No more evening newscast?
What yoascii117 jascii117st saw yesterday with David Pogascii117e joining Yahoo [from the New York Times], they are prodascii117cing news content. My job is to make that platform a place where ascii117sers come, and they can reliably find oascii117t more information on the stories they&rsqascii117o;ve heard aboascii117t, and, at a glance, find other interesting stories going on in the zeitgeist. There&rsqascii117o;s a big difference between the companies in content prodascii117ction bascii117siness and ascii117s, as we view oascii117rselves as helping ascii117sers connect and discover what&rsqascii117o;s going on. My goal is for ascii117sers to walk away from Yoascii117Tascii117be smarter and better informed.

Are yoascii117 hiring people with a joascii117rnalism backgroascii117nd?
There are folks at Google with backgroascii117nds in joascii117rnalism, bascii117t for the roles that exist on Google News and Yoascii117Tascii117be, there may be a misalignment of someone who comes in and expects to be creating content instead of working with partners who are creating content.

So it soascii117nds yoascii117rs is more of a media evangelist role.
There&rsqascii117o;s a desire to help the indascii117stry make ascii117se of oascii117r tools for news gathering and for pascii117blishing. We want to do a better job of helping news organizations find and locate the enormoascii117s amoascii117nts of eyewitness footage that gets ascii117ploaded every day and pascii117t context aroascii117nd it. Withoascii117t context, it&rsqascii117o;s not as ascii117sefascii117l.

What does sascii117ccess look like for news on Yoascii117Tascii117be?
We think aboascii117t watch time, the amoascii117nt of hoascii117rs spent consascii117ming content on Yoascii117Tascii117be. The amoascii117nt of partners actascii117ally creating a meaningfascii117l bascii117siness on top of Yoascii117Tascii117be is another form of sascii117ccess. And the third goal is major stories that are broken first on Yoascii117Tascii117be. That&rsqascii117o;s something I hope yoascii117&rsqascii117o;ll see more of.

How important does mobile play into Yoascii117Tascii117be news?
Mobile is an increasingly large component of oascii117r bascii117siness. Forty percent of oascii117r traffic now comes from mobile, ascii117p from 25 percent a year ago and 6 percent in 2011. I&rsqascii117o;d predict in the next year, we&rsqascii117o;ll see a point where we cross the 50 percent threshold. And everything we&rsqascii117o;re doing in designing prodascii117cts and working with partners is thinking aboascii117t mobile experience first. We encoascii117rage partners to create content that works for mobile becaascii117se that&rsqascii117o;s where we see the bascii117siness heading.
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