CBS CREATES A TRUE CROSS-PLATFORM INTERACTIVE WEB EXPERIENCE FOR "THE INSIDER"
TheInsider.com" to Redefine How Fans Get Their Daily Entertainment Fix on Multiple Complementary Platforms
New Experience Launches With a Passionate Base of Millions of Daily Television Viewers and More than 3 Million Online Users Plus the CBS Mobile Footprint
CBS announced today the sneak peek release of THEINSIDER.COM, a new Web site that will provide a true cross-platform interactive experience for fans of "The Insider," the syndicated daily entertainment news show. By combining one of television's leading entertainment news programs with best-in-class social and communication capabilities, the site redefines how fans discover, explore and enjoy their daily dose of all things pop culture. For a sneak peek, visitors can log on to THEINSIDER.COM.
"The inspiration for TheInsider.com comes from fan feedback complaining about the confusing array of existing celebrity blogs today," said Anthony Soohoo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Entertainment, CBS Interactive. "Time and time again we heard from fans frustrated by time spent going from one blog to the next trying to �be in the know' on the latest celebrity gossip. Adding to the frustration was how cumbersome it was to discuss what they were finding with friends. The underlying theme to what we were hearing was, 'Can't you put this all in the same place?'"
THEINSIDER.COM will have all the day's latest celebrity news and information delivered in an easy-to-use way that brings a fresh perspective to the celebrity news category by enabling users to easily interact not just with each other, but with the content itself, furthering interest between fans and "The Insider" experience. While on the site, users will be able to influence the pulse of what's hot through their online activities and interact with their friends, including their connections from Facebook, to quickly and easily talk about the topics users are most passionate about as it happens, making THEINSIDER.COM the Web destination for celebrity "water cooler" discussions.
"We saw a tremendous opportunity to mirror the success and symbiotic relationship that CBS Sports has with CBSSports.com," said John Nogawski, President of CBS Television Distribution. "THEINSIDER.COM will allow our loyal fans on TV the opportunity to satisfy their appetite for entertainment news in an interactive community fueled by our unique content, anytime and anywhere on the computer or on their mobile device."
With strong promotional integration from daily on-air broadcast multiple times a day, the award-winning editorial team will provide fans on-air and online with exclusive celebrity interviews and breaking news. THEINSIDER.COM's unrivaled community experience, built around pop culture and celebrity topics, presents advertisers with an ideal destination to reach a highly coveted demographic across media platforms. The site, which is available in beta starting today, will launch in the third quarter. By providing users with a pre-launch sneak peek THEINSIDER.COM team will benefit from learning from the online community and will be able to make pre-launch changes to the site.
Terry Wood, President of Creative Affairs and Development for CBS Television Distribution commented, "With millions of viewers each day, 'The Insider' has established itself as credible, engaging television. We are thrilled to extend the brand, which is chock-full of content, to these other platforms where users demand excitement, engagement and credibility on a 24/7 basis. We have industry-leading resources, news producers, writers and correspondents, so we'll be able to deliver users of THEINSIDER.COM an exciting, �inside entertainment' experience."
"We built a new experience to harness the natural social interactions that are already happening today by providing a fun place for fans to share, express and connect to each other about everything pop culture," said Jeff Clark, Vice President and General Manager, Social Media, CBS Interactive. "Being able to redefine this new platform with 'The Insider,' a proven brand with a dedicated passionate audience, should lead to more online activity and engagement. Plus we added mobile capability. This really is the first time each platform has been optimized across TV the Internet and Mobile in each respective world."
Brad Bessey, Co-Executive Producer for "Entertainment Tonight" and Senior Consultant for "The Insider" commented, "With the launch of the new THEINSIDER.COM, we have created a 360-degree bridge between our online and on-air Insider brands. We will continue to break celebrity news with a twist: online users are now able to blog their perspective and insights with the possibility of their content actually airing in the show, thus becoming insiders themselves."
THE INSIDER, which reaches nearly 3 � million viewers each day, is produced and distributed by CBS Television Distribution in Hollywood, Calif. Linda Bell Blue is Executive Producer. Lara Spencer is Anchor; Pat O'Brien, Victoria Recano and Steven Cojocaru are Correspondents. CBS Television Distribution is a unit of CBS Corp.
About CBS Interactive
CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation, oversees all CBS consumer Interactive properties including CBS.com, the CBS Audience Network, CBSSports.com, CBSNews.com, CBS Mobile, CBS EyeLab, Last.fm, Wallstrip, and MobLogic.tv. Content distributed throughout CBS-owned properties and partner Web sites includes network and original programming, live shows produced exclusively for the Internet as well as clips, podcasts and mob-isodes of CBS shows, among other features.
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