Interview with John MacDonald Mapping OWN Television Networks Social Media Plan - Roger Maloney

I had the pleasure to interview Mr John MacDonald who joined OWN Oprah Winfrey Network as chief operating officer EVP programming and digital OWN in June 2010 In his position MacDonald is responsible for program planning digital strategy business development and the day to day operations of the network John came to OWN from MTV Networks where he was responsible for the development and implementation of overall programming strategy for four basic cable networks MTV MTV2 MTV Tr3s and mtvUPrior to MTV MacDonald was president of content and programming VEOH Networks a venturebacked web video portal He also served as general manager Fine Living Network where he was responsible for all aspects of managing the original lifestyle brand including the linear cable television network related website and the development of related ancillary businesses MacDonald was also a member of the senior executive team who launched Fine Living in 2002Twentieth Century FOXTwentieth Television was home to John for six years where he held various positions lastly as executive vice president program enterprises ampamp cable sales Before joining FOX he was as an associate at McKinsey ampamp Company IncRoger Since it worked at OWN how can new cable networks use social media to reach audiencesJohn Oprah is very interested in connecting with her audience more directly than was possible with her talk show and developed shows like Oprah39s LifeClass with an explicit desire to leverage social media to engage in a discussion with her audience The ratings of the show and the online engagement demonstrate that at least for certain types of programs social media can become part of the fabric of the show not only a way to promote and create awareness for the programRoger Do feel there is much engagement for audiences to handle with all these platforms to view contentJohn I think the platforms are maturing and providing increasingly sophisticated yet simple ways to consume and connect with programming Increased engagement is particularly important to the quotsuper fansquot for whom simply watching a program is not enough to satisfy their relationship with a program its characters and the world in which they exist The level of intensity of this engagement will vary by type of show and audience Roger If you had to design your own cable channel today what would it be in today39s digital age John I would focus on creating a platform that makes it simpler to discover new content and move away from a model that attempts to attract an audience 247 as linear services I believe will become increasingly supplanted by ondemand services as evidenced by the current behaviour with DVRs It will become increasingly difficult for established linear services let alone new services to compete with ondemand platforms and the linear services will become more focused on aiding discovery of new content that will be consumed on demand by viewers on their schedulesRoger Maloney is the VP of Vanguarde Consulting Group and company that prepare small business for the digital age Roger can be reached at rogermaloneyhotmailcomRead all Roger39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Tribl Media InsightsCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Interview with John MacDonald Mapping OWN Television Networks Social Media Plan - Roger Maloney

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