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INSIDE<br />
Newsfeed 12<br />
In Contention 16<br />
Remembered 20<br />
Movers & Shakers 20<br />
Facetime 22<br />
DIGITAL / VIDEO<br />
Yahoo’s TV Fail: Why<br />
Things Went Wrong<br />
TODD SPANGLER<br />
@xpangler<br />
YAHOO HAS FLUNKED OUT of<br />
Greendale Community College.<br />
Its failure to make money on<br />
the revival of Dan Harmon’s<br />
cult comedy “Community” and<br />
two other scripted series is emblematic<br />
of the once-mighty Internet company’s<br />
muddled biz strategy overall.<br />
The botched run at programming at<br />
primetime-level costs, which was supposed<br />
to draw on marketers’ TV budgets<br />
to reach Yahoo’s billion-user global base,<br />
is another black eye for CEO Marissa Mayer.<br />
While investors aren’t clamoring for<br />
her head yet, the clock is ticking for Yahoo<br />
to prove its ability to grow profitably.<br />
Mayer and chief marketing officer<br />
Kathy Savitt — the lieutenant who oversaw<br />
Yahoo’s content efforts until quitting<br />
last month to join independent studio<br />
STX Entertainment — had ballyhooed<br />
“Community” as anchoring a bold new<br />
We thought<br />
long and hard<br />
about it … we<br />
couldn’t see a way<br />
to make money<br />
over time.”<br />
Yahoo’s Ken Goldman<br />
premium-content strategy to round out<br />
its live and short-form video pillars.<br />
But viewers, and the ad bucks to support<br />
the shows, didn’t materialize the<br />
way Yahoo had hoped. On its third-quarter<br />
earnings call last week, the company<br />
revealed that it took a $42 million writedown<br />
on “Community,” basketball comedy<br />
“Sin City Saints” and “Other Space,” a scifi<br />
spoof from Paul Feig.<br />
“We thought long and hard about it,<br />
and what we concluded is … we couldn’t<br />
ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXANDER WELLS<br />
Top Billing<br />
11
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