From Thursday January 18, 2007
mtv’s online platform for targeting college job seekers continues to grow in leaps and bounds with today’s announcement that mtvU has acquired RateMyProfessors.com. RateMyProfessors.com, is an online community where 10 million college students have posted over 6.6 million ratings on 900,000 professors. Now that’s what I call transparency. According to Stephen Friedman, general manager of mtvU:
“Every time we asked our audience about tools they use online, RateMyProfessor always came up,” he said. “Now we’re talking with them about how we build on this idea–best dorms, best places to eat around campus.”
Continuing their buying spree of college focused social networking and community sites, it appears mtvU is attempting to increase their relevance to students who are increasingly watching mtv less, and interacting on the web more. Yesterday, the rumor was that mtv’s long running hit show TRL (Total Request Live) may be canceled. Holy shit Batman! This news follows recent Nielsen data showing TRL viewership down from it’s height of 600,000 viewers in 2001, to 393,000 today, a 35% drop.
Last year, mtvU acquired Y2M (Youth Media and Marketing Networks) that owns College Publisher who provides the publishing platform and ad network for some 500 college newspapers such as Duke’s The Chronicle and Notre Dame’s Observer. However, a look at some of the job sections on these college newspapers reveals a rather humble jobs selection, more likely catered to part time jobs for active students rather then the cool jobs that graduates will want to land once their diploma is in hand. In contrast to this, mtvU relies on MonsterTRAK to power their college focused job board and has a pretty strong selection of job seeker content to offer students. We’re left to ponder how long will it be before the jobs section for the college news sites part of College Publisher’s network begin to use the aggregated job board and content found on mtvU. Ideally, mtvU should offer a solution that will cater to both in-school part time jobs, internships, as well as positions for upcoming graduates. With the wealth of college internship programs and corporate sponsorships in the market it seems like additional student focused content and functionality could be added to mtvU to increase its relevance and value.
You can start to put mtvU’s strategy together when you watch their acquisitions. Not that they’re hiding it in any way.
“The move ties into mtvU’s larger strategy to connect with college students “on-air, online and on campus,” Friedman added.”
In addition, there is new speculation published by paidcontent.org, citing multiple sources, suggesting that MTV’s parent Viacom has invested in TagWorld. According to the article on Online Media Daily from MediaPost
“Friedman, whose mtvU unit would certainly be affected by the deal, said he had no knowledge of the agreement. A spokesman for MTV said the company was not commenting on the report.”
What mtv and mtvU have to tackle quickly is a real answer to communities like Facebook. If they can leverage enough of their music and reality T.V. content, along with things like the college newspaper network and other acquisitions like RateMyProfressors and TagWorld, maybe they have a shot. What are your thoughts?
Technorati Tags: mtvU, mtv, TRL, Total Request Live, RateMyProfessors, RateMyProfessors.com, College Publisher, y2m, TagWorld, Youth Media and Marketing Networks
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RateMyProfessor is not a new idea by any means. When I went to Stony Brook, we had a ‘rate-my-professor’ board on every SBU student’s favorite website, http://www.stonybrooksucks.com
Hi Alexander, Thanks for your note about stonybrooksucks.com. I checked it out and it was interesting to read some of the comment about Professors.
Hello. MTVU has some very positive and helpful programs; but the acquisition of RateMyProfessors.com represents a reversal of MTVU’s favorable reputation.
As a professor, I only recently became aware of the RateMyProfessors Web site. I was informed of defamatory statements about me on the site. After reading the remarks, I was shocked by the distortions and, in some cases, outright lies.
The site, in my opinion, primarily serves as an outlet for the hatred and malice of disgruntled students who do not have the conviction or courage to sign their names to their statements. In the meanwhile, the images of many good professors are tarnished. To protect your own image, the RateMyProfessors Website should be discontinued. It not only diminishes the good work of your company but the good name of thousands of productive professors.
If the Web site is not discontinued, students should be required to sign their names at the end of their statements. I think that this requirement will increase the creditability of student evaluators.
I have responded to the statements about me through the e-mail address on RateMyProfessors.com. I will send a formal letter to your legal department in a few days.
Dorothy Drinkard-Hawkshawe
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