Why are Staffers Leaving Discovery Online?

Jul 10 1998

For every magazine, newspaper or TV network that has launched a Web site, the question has been the same: How closely should the business of the online version be tied to the traditional media that spawned it?

It's a debate that has led to the departure of four Discovery Networks online executives in recent months. Tom Hicks, the founding publisher of the award-winning Discovery Online, left late last month; he followed the editor in chief, marketing director and PR manager, all of whom have left since February.

Departed staffers paint a picture of an increasingly conservative management that has stifled the online group's entrepreneurial spirit. They also say the company doesn't promote the site enough on its three TV networks - Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel and Animal Planet - and doesn't include site staffers on TV-led expeditions.

Media Metrix ranked Discovery Online as the 16th-most-visited site in the news, information and entertainment category in the fourth quarter of 1996. By May 1998, the site had fallen to 71st place. Of the 25-person team that launched the site three years ago this month, only six remain.

But beneath the layers of disgruntlement lies reality: The site that one ex-staffer called a "labor of love" must now bear fruit. As media Web ventures make the transition from experiment to business, the relationship between a company's online group and traditional media group is less about "our business" vs. "your business" than about "How do we work together?"

On-air promotion of Discovery Online consists of a voice-over during the credits of the daily Wild Discovery program telling viewers where to go online. Once or twice a month, a special-event program will include the URL in the credits. The Web team conducts independent expeditions that, it says, never receive plugs on the networks.

"We're all learning still, learning about each other's media," says Susan Campbell, senior manager of advertising and promotion for Discovery Networks. Andrew Sharpless, senior VP of interactive for Discovery Enterprises, insists that the struggle has more to do with editorial planning than with promoting the Web site.

Promotional kinks haven't posed as much a problem for other cable networks. ESPN , for example, has developed a formal cross-promotional campaign with its online arm, SportsZone. CNN airs a daily interactive talk show that lets online viewers participate.

Sharpless says stepping up network promotions is a high priority. "One of the most powerful resources we have is [the opportunity] to convert the television audience to the Internet," he says.

For Hicks, though, it's time to move on. As an independent consultant for start-ups, he hopes other entrepreneurs will learn from his experience.