Web Publishers, Agencies Forming Content Council

by Mike Shields for Mediaweek

OCTOBER 22, 2007

A group of Web publishers and content distributors have joined to form the Internet Content Syndication Council, which will seek to raise the profile of the growing number of syndication-based businesses in the online realm.

Signing on as inaugural members are David Verklin, CEO of Carat Americas; Aaron Radin, senior vp, advertising and business development at CBS; Carolyn Bekkedahl, chief development officer at Mochila; Andrew Pancer, COO of About.com; and Bill Flitter, founder of the RSS ad-technology firm Pheedo.

Chairing the council is Andrew Susman, CEO of Studio One Networks, which distributes ad-supported lifestyle content across a network of local sites.

Susman said his company was motivated to put together an industry organization dedicated to syndication because of the proliferation of new distribution models on the Web-among them, RSS feeds and networks like Google's AdSense. He added that there's some ongoing confusion about just how the syndication model works online.

"The business of Internet syndication is growing geometrically," he said. "Yet nobody has a definite definition of what syndication is. Much of this is due to continued fragmentation of audiences."

Susman said that at the outset, the council, which is inviting all digital media professionals to participate, will focus on gathering information, identifying key issues and publishing a set of case studies and best practices for Web syndication.