Yahoo’s Confused Messaging on Original Content

(See the story below first)Some of the contentious issues raised in the Fortune story below is Yahoo’s own doing. From what I’ve been hearing from senior execs at media companies, there are some confusing signals coming out of Yahoo on original content. It goes like this:

1. “We’re in the content business and always have been that way.”

2. “We are Absolutely Not in the content business, so let’s work together

3. “We’re in the content business, but only to a limited extent. That’s not our primary business so we can partner and maybe compete just a little.”

And all the recent hires haven’t really helped in clearing that confusion. In some senses, this is a flip of the Google-paranoia among media companies..some of these execs I’ve spoken to are now more comfortable working with Google than with Yahoo…Google is still not directly in the content business, at least not directly.
This is also fueling a debate over Google Adsense verus Yahoo Publisher Network, and who’s “safer to work with”. “If you support Overture are you giving money to someone who will create a product to kill you,” a media executive told me.

Some of these are older issues, and have been around ever since the boom days. But Yahoo’s latest moves into what you can call original content has been troubling some execs. Consider, for instance, Yahoo News’ London bombing blog. Or Yahoo Sports’ Opinion & Analysis section. Or Yahoo Health’s “Health Expert Blogs“. Or Yahoo’s Game Domain. Surely Yahoo can’t keep denying its original content ambitions, can it?

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