MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) is drawing web functions for its MTV.com and VH1.com together and has brought over Kristin Frank from its Logo network to serve as SVP, General Manager of the sites, paidContent has learned. As part of the newly created post, Frank will manage the sites’ strategy and daily operations. Despite the unified management structure, the brands, and the digital teams that work on them, will remain separate. The two will share certain tools, such as video players, search, and content management.
Frank was most recently SVP, Multiplatform Distribution and COO for Logo, where she helped develop the distribution strategy for the initial launch of the MTVN gay and lesbian channel’s multiplatform digital property.
Previously, the GM roles for MTV.com and VH1.com were handled separately. Frank replaces both Dan Hart, who was promoted to the GM post at MTV.com in 2007 after three years at the Viacom unit, and Tina Imm, who had been with VH1’s digital group since 2004. The two are still with the company, at least for the time being, but have stepped aside from their day-to-day duties. The effort to streamline operations at the two networks’ sites comes about a month after the departure of Mika Salmi, who left his role as MTVN’s president of Global Digital Media. The company decided not replace him in that post.
— Update: A fire drill went off in the middle of an interview with Frank this morning, just as she was talking about the reasoning behind joining oversight of MTV.com and VH1.com. “Combining the leadership of the sites will allow them to share in the best tools we have to offer, as opposed to having them approach it as single entities,” she said. “The top priority is for both sites to concentrate on developing the web as a medium for video-storytelling, which is what we do at our core.” More after the jump.
— Priorities: Primarily, Frank will be judged on driving traffic and pageview growth. According to comScore (NSDQ: SCOR), in Q1, MTV.com averaged 8.5 million monthly unique visitors — a 6 percent gain both sequentially from 4Q08 and compared to the same period last year. VH1.com’s monthly average traffic was just shy of 4 million monthly uniques, also a spurt of 6 percent from Q4. She also said her experience at Logo has been good training. “I have experience managing a single P&L for an entire channel. So aligning the sites under a single umbrella, while maintaining the integrity and independence of the brands, is not too dissimilar from what I’ve done in the past.”
— Multiplatform challenges: For MTVN, like other cable networks, the view of how much to build up the web experience when TV pays most of the bills is a constant issue. I asked Frank about that and she handled it like a consummate diplomat. Frank: “I don’t see challenges in TV versus online. I see opportunities to build on video-based media. That is simply who we are whether you’re talking about TV or the web. Our viewers are certainly platform agnostic; they don’t care. We to give them quality content when and wherever they want it. Online is an additive experience, but it’s not just additive to TV.”
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