April 24th - Last Thursday Carly Mayberry penned a piece on the Hollywood Reporter Website about IAC's January launch of a Website with content geared towards an African-American audience. As yet there is no name for the site which is part of IAC CEO Barry Diller's IAC Progamming initiative.
If you've surfed for hotties on match.com, trolled for information on ask.com or tried to boost party attendance on evite then you're already familiar with InterActive Corp./IAC.
(With the expanding power of Webmetrics God knows they are familiar with YOU...)
Even though the intent is to market products and services I think it's a good sign to see advertisers and marketers actively reaching out for the African-American Dollar - which was around $600 Billion in 2002 according to the BE Board of Economists. Sure advertisers target the black audience on channels like UPN, or BET - but to be honest I'm African-American and I really never gravitated towards either of those channels though I think it's a positive step for media evolution that there are at least SOME efforts to target content towards an urban Africa-American television audience.
For me personally I get a much more engaging sense of connectivity to my culture by listening to the Tavis Smiley show on NPR or by reading James Baldwin or Zora Neale Hurston than I do say, watching a show like Moesha or the Hughleys.
Most of the "mainstream media" ads I see in print or online rarely target African-Americans, I'll make it a point to give some closer examination to a broader range of media targeted towards African-Americans and other minorities as this blog (and eventually the Website) continues to evolve in scope, complexity and analysis. We hope.
CG
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