(The founder of the migthy gossip site Mediatakeout.com is now applying his business savvy to a reality web series called “MediaTakeOut Presents: First Date.” Fred Mwangaguguhunga (his name is Kenyan) is working iwth Fisher Kligenstein Films to produce the “PG-rated” show. As one of the most popular gossip sites on the web, avaraging 300 million page views per month, expanding the MediaTakeOut brand was a no brainer, Mwangaguguhunga told BlackEnterprise.com.

Production on 52 episodes, which range from 6-10 minutes has already wrapped and will roll out weekly on the site.  Mwangaguguhunga believes that the show will be successful not only because of MediaTakeOut’s built-in audience but also because the 18-25 year old demographic wants to consume more video content online.

“You look at all the demographics—the under-25 market is watching less physical TV on a television. They’re watching more on their computer, on YouTube, on Hulu, on iTunes,” he told Black Enterprise. “The question is which company is going to be best suited to take advantage of it. We’re coming in early and making aggressive steps to be that company.”

Read More…

Moguldom Mobile Creates the Leading Gateway for Advertisers to Reach African Americans via Mobile across Its Entire Portfolio of Online Destinations

June 13, 2011 – NEW YORK, NY – Moguldom Media Group, an innovative new media company, today announced Moguldom Mobile, a new division that makes the entire Moguldom portfolio of premier digital destinations available via both iPhone and Android mobile apps. In addition to providing consumers with mobile experiences optimized for their favorite devices, Moguldom Mobile will provide the leading mobile gateway for advertisers seeking to reach African Americans at scale. Later this year, the Moguldom Mobile platform will be opened to third-party publishers to allow them to monetize their own mobile websites with high-impact rich media ads and cross-platform app development. Moguldom also announced the appointment of Alicia Walker, most recently its Social Media and Analytics Manager, as Managing Director of Moguldom Mobile.

Moguldom Mobile extends and enhances the strong performance Moguldom has already achieved through its mobile websites; the company currently reaches more than 3 million monthly unique visitors on mobile in aggregate, serving more than over 15 million mobile pageviews per month. For advertisers, Moguldom Mobile unlocks the full potential of the mobile channel to reach urban consumers, for whom mobile devices play an especially prominent part in the online experience. A recent report by Horowitz Associates has found that African Americans outpace the rest of the market in usage of mobile video, while a July 2010 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of Hispanics and 46 percent of African Americans use their phones to access the Internet, compared with 33 percent of whites.

Moguldom Mobile apps are now available, optimized for iPhone and Android, for Moguldom properties including Bossip.com, its flagship property; 24Wired.TV, providing unique licensed and original video content and web TV, The Atlanta Post, covering African-American business, media and politics; Hip-Hop Wired, a hip-hop news, culture and lifestyle destination; BossipTwitter, dedicated to aggregating celebrity tweets; and StyleBlazer, a site for fashion-forward African American women. Apps optimized for the iPad will follow in the third quarter.

To help advertisers achieve maximum impact, Moguldom Mobile will leverage extensive creative and technical capabilities to develop highly engaging creative units in-house for preferred clients, including full page mobile and mobile video interstitial units across IPhone, Android, and iPad devices. By opening its platform to other African American-focused premium publishers later this year, Moguldom Mobile will enable these companies to quickly and easily develop cross-platform apps to increase their own mobile revenue.

Alicia Walker, Managing Director of Moguldom Media, has worked with Moguldom for more than two years in areas including ad trafficking, social media, and traffic analytics and strategy. As Social Media and Analytics Manager, she managed a team of six and helped double Moguldom’s aggregate social reach on Twitter and Facebook over the last six months. She will now lead the company’s mobile strategy, develop its monetization and technology platform, and recruit new publishers to join Moguldom Mobile. Said Walker, “Until now, there has been no platform allowing advertisers to efficiently reach African Americans at scale on mobile platforms such as iPad, IPhone, and Android. Moguldom Mobile provides the answer to that problem, capitalizing on this clear and growing market opportunity.”

Said Marve Frazier, Chief Creative Officer of Moguldom Media Group, “We entered 2011 with a clear strategy we call Triple Threat plus Scale, a response to the demand in this dynamic marketplace for a cross-platform, high impact and efficient medium to reach African Americans at scale. Our focus on building out video, social, and mobile, while adding scale across every channel, has proven to be a hit with our visitors and advertisers alike. We look forward to helping our advertisers effectively reach African Americans on mobile and helping third party African American-focused publishers develop and execute a comprehensive mobile strategy.”

About Moguldom Media Group

Moguldom Media Group is the world’s largest network of owned and operated digital brands focusing on African Americans as measured by comScore online reach. Our premium online brands capture the pulse of diverse segments of African Americans and provide rich, compelling experiences across multiple media channels including online video, mobile, and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. As owners and operators of our own digital properties and content, we are uniquely positioned to drive innovation and value for both our audiences and the advertisers seeking to reach them.

comScore Shows More Unique Visitors, Household Income, and Engagement than Competitors for Fastest-Growing African American Women’s Lifestyle Brand

June 8, 2011 – New York, NY – Moguldom Media Group, the leading digital media company that develops premium online publishing brands serving African American audiences, today announced that its MadameNoire.com property, the premier digital destination for savvy, upwardly mobile African American women, now outperforms every other brand in its category according to comScore results for May 2011. In addition to being the fastest-growing lifestyle brand for African American women, MadameNoire.com already serves more pages per visit than most women lifestyle brands, an indication of its highly engaged audience.

MadameNoire.com’s unique online content includes a balanced mix of news, lifestyle, entertainment, and business coverage from the perspective of African American women. MadameNoire.com has also launched a new online video program, “She’s the Boss,” co-produced with Moguldom Studios, which focuses on African American women entrepreneurs and business leaders. Clearly filling a need previously unmet by longer-running traditional competitors such as HelloBeautiful and Essence.com, MadameNoire has achieved tremendous growth. Still less than a year old, the site already reaches more than 1.1 million unique visitors and serves 10 million pageviews per month (Google Analytics). The most recent comScore results show performance that leaves every competitor far behind, including average household income between $75,000-$100,000 and over 910,000 unique visitors.

Said Demetria Irwin, Managing Editor of MadameNoire.com, “MadameNoire represents a fresh, authentic, and passionate voice for black women of the Michelle Obama generation and beyond. We have worked tirelessly and invested in premium content that captures the diversity of issues that confront today’s African American women. We also believe in entertaining them while they are on the site. Mainstream media organizations and slow-moving legacy African American media brands have neglected and under-invested in our audience, so we feel it’s essential for us to add sustainable value in the space.”

Judene Walden, recently hired as Executive Vice President of the Moguldom Women division, said, “The organic growth we have seen on MadameNoire has been phenomenal. The Moguldom approach is to ‘go hard or go home’ and it’s obviously paying off as we expand our portfolio of properties. We’re hungry and there is a lot of work to do, as we have very ambitious plans for positioning MadameNoire as the premiere African American Women’s lifestyle brand across video, mobile, social, and off-line events. Our recent success on MadameNoire is part of an overall triple-threat strategy for Moguldom to be the leading African American digital media company offering authentic and premium content at scale across mobile, video, and social.”

About Moguldom Media Group
Moguldom Media Group is the world’s largest network of owned and operated digital brands focusing on African Americans as measured by comScore online reach. Our premium online brands capture the pulse of diverse segments of African Americans and provide rich, compelling experiences across multiple media channels including online video, mobile, and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. As owners and operators of our own digital properties and content, we are uniquely positioned to drive innovation and value for both our audiences and the advertisers seeking to reach them.

By Sheryl Nance-Nash

Can Magic Johnson work his magic yet again?  The smart money suspects yes, as does Robert Miller, who, along with Quincy Jones, founded Vibe magazine in 1993.

Johnson teamed up with Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies earlier this year to invest in Vibe Holdings.  He became chairman of the New York-based company that owns Vibe, Vibe.com, Uptown and Uptown Professional magazines, the Soul Train TV show and library, as well as the Vibe Lifestyle Network, a collection of some 25 websites.

“Magic Johnson has a track record of success in developing businesses in the urban market. His credibility, resume and his knowledge in this space opens a lot of doors,” said Miller, chairman of the Vibe and Uptown Magazine group.

The infusion of capital will fuel expansion.  “This will give us a lot of flexibility to grow our businesses and the opportunity to acquire or invest in others in the urban media space,” said Miller.

Though Johnson will not be involved in the day-to-day operations, when it comes to setting strategy and direction, he’ll be the go-to guy, much as he was for the Lakers.

“In addition to participating in, creating and agreeing to the big picture, at any point he will also have four or five initiatives to focus on,” Miller added.

Johnson’s moxie could move the needle for Vibe Holdings, which in the last year has found its sea legs.  After advertising sales fell more than 40 percent in June of 2009, Vibe magazine shut down.  Six months later it relaunched, under the new ownership of Uptown Media and private equity firm InterMedia Partners.

Springtime in Manhattan means many things from putting the Uggs away to getting the umbrellas out.  But April also ushers in a special time where Hollywood power players descend from LA and mix it up with hipsters and other locals to peep the best in film during the Tribeca Film Festival.  Already 10 years old, the Festival is an ever-expanding celebration of current creative expression via film while actively supporting those poised to take the future spotlight in filmmaking.  To that end, Tribeca Film Festival’s (TFI)  Tribeca All Access  (TAA) program officially kicked off today marking its eighth year anniversary!

For those who may not know, TAA was created to help foster and nurture relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities.  This year, ten young filmmakers from across the country were selected from more than 376 submissions to participate in TAA this year. New to this year’s program, participating filmmakers will also receive an initial $10,000 each in grants and are also paired with an advisor from the Producers Guild of America (PGA), in advance of the festival program.

Lucky TAA participants are offered a a whirlwind of panels, lunches, networking events and award ceremonies but a special part of the program also enables women and minority directors and screenwriters to obtain one-on-one meetings with more than 100 potential investors, development executives, producers and agents.

But what, you may ask, has all this got to do with millennials and digital media?

Well today as I schmoozed at the Welcome Lunch in a large, sun-filled room at the Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park, my suspicions were confirmed.  One, TAA is a great opportunity for young filmmakers of color, so tell a friend (and if you’re a filmmaker, start thinking about applying for next year in order to get some leverage within a notoriously difficult-to-penetrate industry).  Two, the intersection of filmmakers and the digital realm will only become more deeply entwined so you need to be prepared.  Thus, with a cool transmedia producer named Caitlin (who had a major hand in “Avatar”) on my right and TAA Advisory Board member, digital fan and film director Reginald Hudlin (“House Party”) on my left; our table excitedly mixed it up non-stop about the power of digital cross-platform opportunities, the browning of our country and the future of film!

In fact, while Spike Lee and Tyler Perry go at it in the media;  I couldn’t help but think during this luncheon that energy might be better put to use by these directors actually publicly contemplating and encouraging creation of a larger footprint by the next generation of filmmakers of color by using digital means to better create, market and distribute.

To that end, Henry McGee, President of HBO Video and a speaker at the luncheon probably summed it up best by saying that “digital is our destiny” from distribution to methodology.  During his brief talk McGee noted, for example,  that a whopping 1/3 of all Americans went to see a 3D film last year and that “clouds” will enable expansive storage while simultaneously contributing to the challenge of attracting and retaining audience attention for titles; given the increase and ease of access to film content.  Of particular note is that the global box office is now made up of a viewing audience two-thirds of which is outside of the United States.  This coupled with the fact that the U.S. Census numbers strongly reinforce the “browning” of our own country should finally create the need for a change in the persistent, largely homogeneous images previously force-fed to all.

While McGee seemed particularly impressed with the fact that statistics show that 1 out of 4 box office tickets were purchased by Latinos, I have to say I was a bit disappointed that he gave no love and no stats on just how many of those tickets are bought by African-Americans.  Make no mistake, our demographic is quite unique because my research shows that it is consistently an influencer demographic meaning that, particularly within youth culture, our demo helps to greatly shape what is and isn’t trending. This is incredibly important to marketers trying to encourage a purchase.  Further, given our behavioral inclinations, we’re also apt to see a film opening weekend given our “buy now” mentality.

At any rate, one thing is certain:  we are inside of a new era where opportunities abound for those who are persistent and prepared.  Don’t find yourself on the outside looking in because the stars are aligning in a way they previously have not.  Visit tribecafilm.com for detailed information.

* Stay tuned for my re-cap from inside the next day’s event’s from TAA @TFI later in the week; and in the meantime don’t miss my footage in our Videos section to see all the latest in digital devices.

Lauren DeLisa Coleman is a writer, speaker and thought-leader specializing in the diverse segment of the Gen X,Y demo, tech and its convergence with socio-economic concerns. Follow her @mediaempress

by R. Asmerom

Odd Future has been riding a publicity wave since the end of 2010 and there are no signs that the the 10 member crew is losing any momentum. I hadn’t heard about Odd Future until earlier this year, but once I did learn about the eclectic collective, it seemed that I was hearing something about Frank Ocean, Tyler the Creator and the whole clan everyday. They’ve been described as a fresh, new, alternative version of Wu-Tang. The reference alone not only sparked a desire to learn more about how this group of individual artists came together but also led me to contemplate why few artists, or record labels for that matter, have thought to utilize this approach to marketing.

The Los Angeles based crew (full name: Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All) have embraced a rarely-utilized marketing strategy to strengthen their individual chance at music success. Unlike rap families like Cash Money or G-Unit, which grew from an established foundation of success, Odd Future is an affiliation of all new artists who both do their own thing (several have put out their own albums and mixtapes) and reap the benefits of being part of a larger brand.

Would two of its bigger stars, Tyler the Creator or Frank Ocean, have been able to as effectively market their talents if not for the backdrop of the collective dynamic? The same question could be asked of individual Wu Tang members – would Raekwon, GZA or Ghostface Killah been as popular without the mystique of being part of the Wu Tang Clan?

“There is definitely strength in numbers and it’s always been the standard in urban music,” said  Joie Manda, head of Urban Music for Warner Bros. “If you look at everybody from the Wu Tang Clan to Young Money/Cash Money and as far back as the Juice Crew you can see it. I would say it’s easier because you are marketing a movement.”

The recession devastated many businesses – most notably, magazines. With advertising budgets having plummeted, magazines that were most affected by declining add dollars had to cease publication including Vibe magazine (which was later resurrected as a quarterly publication), Domino, and Men’s Vogue among many others. But some have managed to stay afloat, including some Black mags that have managed to stick around for the long haul – magazines we can’t even remember living without. Here is a look at the Black glossies which have informed, inspired and survived through the decades.

Right On! and Black Beat

These magazines targeting the Black teen market have held on for decades – four decades that is. Right On! debuted in 1971, with the Jackson 5 on their first cover. It was the first magazine to cater to Black teens and was the African-American version of mags like Tiger Beat and Bop. It can rightfully claim to be one of the longest running urban magazines in the country. The two publications are currently owned by Dorchester Media, LLC, but the history of the founder(s) remains a mystery as Dorchester Media is keeping quiet on the exact origins of the pubs.

by R. Asmerom

Jay-Z never sleeps, does he? The rapper/author/”business, man” has embarked on a new venture with a lifestyle website according to Social Times. The site is called Life + Times, a name taken from the  title of his fourth studio album. It will reportedly focus on music, fashion, sports and technology, all curated by Hova himself.  The layout of the site is what is going to make it stand out from the crowd as it employs a highly visual design and presentation, “reminiscent of music discovery iPad app, Aweditorium.”

Hova is not the first rapper to venture into the online content game. 50 Cent has done it with ThisIs50.com, which is competing against other hip-hop news oriented sites. It will be interesting to see just how much of a long term splash Life + Style will make in terms of readership and influence.

Search. No doubt, you do it every day; probably several times a day depending on how events unfold at work and at home. It’s hard to remember a time when it didn’t exist.

In an increasingly fast-paced world where information not only moves more quickly than ever before as well as moves at an exponential rate within each second, categorization and information filtering has never been more important. New terms are being utilized in our society such as “relationship capital” and “information capital” as major elements that come in to play along with traditional capital.

Depending on who I know and what I know that they don’t, my personal “stock” can go up or down. So in a society where information is becoming more coveted; how important are African-Americans on the digital food chain, given the continued rising strength of both our increased population and economic buying power, given to the organizers and gate-keepers of information and search such as Google and Microsoft’s Bing.

And more importantly, how will the perception affect your pocket as, perhaps, a young African-American with an economic dream?

I only ask because recently Google made a big announcement regarding its new Hispanic strategy focus. What makes this business development particularly interesting is because the Google’s approach to the U.S. Hispanic market is centered more on the cultural identity of Latinos than on the difference in language.

This is the strategy designed by Mark Lopez, the head of Google’s U.S. Hispanic unit who is reportedly trying to significantly increase the amount of advertising directed toward U.S. digital media in Spanish. “Of the Hispanic media’s $4 billion in income from advertising,” Lopez was quoted as saying, “barely 3 percent is going to digital media. In the coming years, there will be accelerated growth.” The move is significant because Google’s interest opens the doors to an accelerated growth in the Hispanic digital market.”

But unless I’ve missed something, I have not yet seen this same fervor and anticipation directed by Google toward our market. The U.S. Census Bureau has provided undeniable figures in the consistent growth of the Black population as well, and other statistical organizations has shown that our numbers are growing more in on-line usage as well as out-index in Web access from mobile devices. While we are undeniably (and hopefully for the most part) Americans, African-Americans have always had an additional cultural context from which it is best to access us as well.

So what gives?

Are we simply taken for granted by the mighty search engine even though Target Market News consistently shows absolutely staggering purchase power? I’d love to see Google’s interest also equal an “accelerated growth” in the Black digital market. The revenue would certainly be welcome for existing and future young digital pioneers of color such as yourselves, wouldn’t it?

But Google is a savvy company. I’m not counting them out on this. And maybe it will also nudge Bing as well, which I actually haven’t seen do any more to lure the African-American consumer beyond a mild attempt at collaboration with Jay-Z’s book publisher for the release of Decoded last year.

(BlackWeb2.0) — Interactive One, the digital arm of media company Radio One, has made a big addition to its management team. Navarrow Wright, co-founder of Global Grind and Black Web 2.0 contributor has joined the company as their new Chief Technology Officer. In his new role, Wright will be responsible “for leading the technology, site architecture and IT strategies, to ensure Interactive One provides its consumers with superior product delivery and user experience.”

Read More…