The Internet group Hi-Media (ISIN code FR0000075988 - HIM, HIM.FR), one of the European leaders in interactive advertising and electronic micro-payments, announced today that the Company’s Publishing division is launching three new Internet sites on the “current events and sports” vertical.
“We were already strong in the current events and sports category on the ad network side. It’s an essential development for us, since the mix of the generalist current events media and the sports media provides for an efficient advertising product that is much appreciated by advertisers, both in the press and on the Internet. With 1.6 million unique visitors in sports, 5.4 million in current events and executives, our advertising network is one of the most powerful in France (source: Nielsen Netratings, February 2008),” said Cyril Zimmermann, CEO of Hi-Media. “From that perspective expanding on the publishing side with a complementary mix of generalist news, current events and sports media is a compelling strategic move that benefits our advertisers and shareholders as well as visitors who use our sites. Maximizing synergies between our advertising and publishing networks is a core strategy for building a leading integrated online media company.”
 Sport.fr: New features and services for professionals and general public
Hi-Media acquired Sport.fr with a plan to revitalize the site by developing its various audiences and build brand loyalty. Before the launch of the new version, the site had:
- 150,000 unique users and over 3 million page views per month (Nielsen / Adtech, January 2008)
- Audience mostly male aged 25 to 49 year (Nielsen January 2008)
- unique audience of both professionals and the general
public including high income executives (Novatris, NetObserver)
- community of online-buyer visitors who were over-equipped with high-tech products (Novatris, NetObserver)
A new version of the site provides enhanced features and services for the audience of professionals and the general public. The new site will be fun and participatory, with content and community tools drawn from Hi-Media’s experience in managing highly-engaged online communities (e.g., blogorama.fr, fotolog.com). The team that has been producing Sport.fr editorial content since 2000 (creators of www.sport.fr, the Lettre du sport, the Lettre de l’économie du sport and the Officiel juridique du sport) will augment content provided by AFP.
Monsondage.com: a unique concept
Monsondage allows users to keep a finger on the pulse of current events and society by giving them access to the best-available public opinion polls. Every day monsondage.com presents results of studies published by the major French and foreign institutes in a simple and educational format with heavy use of graphics. Third party content with links to complete studies on partner sites is presented alongside editorial produced by monsondage.com.
Community tools that allow users to react to studies encourage debate about results within the community. Only several weeks after the beta version’s launch, the site has already been visited by several tens of thousands of unique users (Omniture, March 2008).
Contre-feux.com: analysis and high-end debate
Contre-feux is a forum for debating and analysing current events. The site covers topics that are ignored by the traditional media as well as essential current events. The contre-feux difference is in taking a critical step back from the flow of raw information available on the Internet without any ideological or political biases.
This is made possible by the editorial mix consisting of:
- Content produced by an “editorial staff” open to associations, experts and intellectuals, but also to Internet users who can send in their contributions;
- Reported content: as a “meta-site,” contra-feux offers a selection of contributions and articles published on other Internet media, magazine or debate sites;
- Contributions from Internet users as a response to published articles or to the two debates organised each month.
Contre-feux’s balanced mix of user generated and reported content reflects the editorial philosophy of all websites owned and operated by Hi-Media Publishing. Contre-feux is positioned halfway between daily information media and community participation sites, making it a perfect fit for Hi-Media’s advertising offering in “news, current events and sports.”
With the launch of the new websites, Hi-Media has now positioned itself vertically – with complementary advertising and publishing assets -- within the current events and sports category. This represents creation of the Company’s third vertical after the entertainment (jeuxvideo.com, toutlecine.com, fotolog.com, programme-tv.com, blogorama.fr) and women’s (actustar.com, psychonet.fr) categories. Adding a third vertical was one of Hi-Media’s key objectives for 2008 and the Group looks forward to further launches in keeping with the strategy announced with publication of the group’s annual results.
The company will publish its quarterly sales figure and the associated narrative report on 6 May 2008.
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