Christina Norman’s stock went up when she was first hired by Oprah Winfrey to head her cable network OWN. Soon thereafter, however, Norman’s name became even more popular in industry circles when news broke that she was asked to leave OWN in the face of dismal ratings.
Norman followed up her CEO gig with a surprising position: that of executive editor of Huffington Post’s Black Voices. For many, it seemed like a step down for the woman who was once the president of MTV and credited with turning VH1 around. But she has proved to be a secret weapon for HuffPo and its monstrous momentum as a top content site. “At the heart of it, I’m a content person. I just needed to wrap my head around content for an online audience,” Norman told AdWeek.
Since joining the team in October, BlackVoices has registered some strong numbers according to AdWeek. “Daily visitors have surged by 73 percent to 318,000, while monthly pagesviews have spiked by 19 percent. And much like the mothership, BlackVoices has embraced being a social publisher, with referrals from social networks climbing by 42 percent.”
Since BlackVoices is such a stronghold in the online Black news sphere, it is primed to grab up the dollars dedicated to African-American marketing and advertising. And that’s where Norman’s impact is most felt.
