Online Video Site, Joost, Cuts Back by Eugene Hernandez (June 30, 2009)
Letter from Joost CEO Mike Volpi Hello, Today we have made some important changes at Joost. In these tough economic times, it’s been increasingly challenging to operate as an independent, ad-supported online video platform. In order to position ourselves well for the future, we began investigating additional lines of revenue generation for Joost. We have decided to change our focus to start providing a white label video portal platform for media companies, cable and satellite providers, broadcasters and distributors. Since we have built a best-of-breed technology platform which many of our content partners have asked us to license, transforming our business allows us to offer our technology as a service to partners. This will open up new and exciting paths for our company and we are looking forward to this new chapter in our development. At the same time, we will continue to operate Joost.com and its associated video applications as a showcase of our technology. We will continue to offer ad-supported programming on Joost.com, but while we are making our white label offering ready for commercial use, we’ll have fewer resources available for content operations, including content updates and refreshes. With the new focus and direction, we will, unfortunately, say goodbye to some of our colleagues and friends – some of whom you may have worked with. This is obviously disappointing and sad – it’s never easy saying goodbye to coworkers, especially when people have poured so much of their time, talent, effort and emotion into a company. We appreciate the contribution that all of our employees have given to Joost, and are working to make sure this transition is as smooth as possible. We’ll be in touch within the next week with your new contact – but if you have any immediate questions, please feel free to email stacey.seltzer@joost.com or me directly at mike.volpi@joost.com I also wanted to let you know that I will be stepping down as CEO of Joost, although I’ll remain actively involved as Chairman of the Board. Matt Zelesko, currently the SVP of engineering, will take over as CEO, and will be assisted in running the business by Stacey Seltzer, currently the SVP of international business development and content acquisition. Thank you for all of your support for Joost.
|
AFI Fest
AFI Fest '09
BROKEN EMBRACES
A Film By Almodovar, Starring Penelope Cruz Opens New York 11/20, Opens Los Angeles 12/11 Opens additional cities 12/25 Where is it opening by you? www.sonyclassics.com/brokenembraces/dates.html "Astonishing! A Masterpiece!" Jeffrey Lyons, KNBC Weekend Today "Cruz with Almodovar makes BROKEN EMBRACES soar!" Richard Corliss, TIME Written and Directed by Pedro Almodovar www.brokenembracesmovie.com www.facebook.com/brokenembracesmovie |
||||||
finally. unfortunately, not too surprised, they were a bit backwards from the very start. during their launch, an interviewer had asked the founders how they would fulfill their marketing pitch of distributing HD quality videos since consumer upload was so limited. they responded, via “big pipes” from servers in Europe. doesn’t quite sound like the P2P dream they marketed, just eDonkey repackaged for video.
and the switch to Flash? nail in their technology coffin.