Digital Drivers - Vivek Shah

May 23, 2008

Vivek Shah
President, Digital Publishing
The Time Inc. Business and Finance Network

As the New York-based President of Digital Publishing for the Time Inc. Business and Finance Network, Vivek Shah oversees all digital media activities of that unit, including http://www.cnnmoney.com/ target=new> CNNMoney.com. One of the largest business/finance websites in the world, CNNMoney.com was re-launched in January 2006 and is now the Internet home of Fortune, Fortune Small Business, Business 2.0 and Money magazines. A Lifestyle "channel" recently joined News, Markets, Technology, Jobs & Economy, Personal Finance, Real Estate and Small Business on the CNNMoney.com website. Shah, who has been with Time Inc. for 11 years, earlier was General Manager and VP of New Business Ventures of the Fortune/Money Group.

Q. Roughly what percent is original content versus content drawn from your various business magazines?
A. CNNMoney.com has mostly original content. We have a dedicated newsroom in New York and a dedicated full-time editorial staff of 35 journalists. Our magazine writers also contribute daily analysis. We cover the "what" and the magazine writers cover more of the "why," the background and context. In addition, we license wire service stories and feature the Fortune 500 and other big special reports like the "Fortune 50 Most Powerful Women." And it's completely free.

Q. Of that, how much video do you offer now? And do you foresee a significant ramping up in the near term?
A. We have 10 video segments a day, all TV quality, with some of that culled from CNN and conference events. As for the newly announced CNN Events, we don't know yet whether we'll be covering some of those. We will continue to build video. We've had a remarkable response from our advertising partners, like Lincoln Zephyr. Pre-roll advertising on video is a big area.

Q. What about audio?
A. We do some audio but we prioritize other things ahead of that. We do podcasting, but the appetite is more for other areas.

Q. How much traffic is generated by clicks through the "Partners" section at the bottom of the CNN.com home page?
A. About 35% of our unique visitors come from our partners at CNN.com.

Q. What would you most like to do that your site is not already doing?
A. Ten months into our re-launch, we want to focus on being the most comprehensive and insightful business-news site on the web. We reach more visitors per month than any business vertical site and they spend more time with us. Besides doing a lot more video for storytelling, we want to improve community and also tools and applications. We want to figure out ways to connect our community and moderate discourse. There's a lot more we can do, and a lot more we will do. As for tools and applications, we want to empower users of market data, et cetera, so that the experience is even more seamless, intuitive and user-friendly.