Empresas y finanzas

Current Partners with The Guardian and Salon Media Group



    Current, the world´s peer-to-peer news and information network,
    today announced the launch of a new affiliate program that will
    further expand the company´s content reach and offerings globally. The
    first two companies to join this venture are The Guardian, and
    award-winning US online news and entertainment website, Salon.

    Current´s content affiliate program is intended to give top media
    brands more exposure to Current´s core audience of 18-34-year-olds via
    a new vlogging format on both Current TV and current.com, while also
    providing media brands with high-quality Current-produced vlogs for
    their own websites.

    Journalists from The Guardian who will be producing vlogs for
    Current include Dave Hill, John Harris, Seth Freedman and Anna
    Pickard. Salon correspondents who will be contributing include Alex
    Koppelman, Tracy Clark-Flory, Rebecca Traister and Farhad Manjoo.

    Current will package a single vlog each day for television
    supplied by correspondents from The Guardian and Salon as well as
    create a web-friendly version that will live on Current.com, Salon.com
    and Guardian.co.uk. Vlogs on Current.com that generate dialogue with
    its online community have the potential to be repackaged for Current
    TV enabling them to contribute to topics initiated by The Guardian and
    Salon journalists.

    "Current is committed to meeting the ever-evolving needs of our
    young adult audience, so it is important for us to align with brands
    that are well respected media leaders," said Joanna Drake Earl,
    president of new media for Current. "This program gives journalists
    and bloggers from other established content providers, such as The
    Guardian and Salon, an opportunity to be seen and heard within
    Current´s community, while we engage them in conversation with our
    online and TV audiences about subjects that they are covering
    everyday."

    Emily Bell, Director of Digital Content, Guardian News & Media,
    added: "When we were approached by Current TV we knew that their
    profile and outlook was highly compatible with the Guardian. We are
    very excited about the partnership and think it will bring our
    journalism to a wider audience and help us showcase our best blogging
    talent in a video format."

    Salon´s partnership with Current is a cornerstone of its new
    initiatives, according to Salon Editor-in-Chief, Joan Walsh. "We love
    Current´s commitment to two things: to reach a younger audience, and
    to put the tools of content creation in the hands of that audience,"
    said Walsh. "Clearly, Salon shares those values. This partnership
    offers us a way to introduce video, and Current TV, to Salon´s
    audience, and to introduce Salon to Current´s audience."

    Notes to Editors:

    About Current:

    The station was founded by Al Gore, the former Vice President of
    the United States, and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt. Academy Award Winner
    Gore describes the channel as the world´s peer-to-peer news and
    information network, with programming that ranges from the hottest
    trends in technology, fashion, music and celebrity, to pressing issues
    concerning politics, finance and the environment.

    The schedule - which is made up of short form, non-fiction,
    programme "pods" (averaging three to eight minutes) - is dictated by
    the viewers (via the Current website) who have the power to vote or
    "green light" programmes onto the network.

    Current´s innovative VC2 (Viewer Created Content) concept promotes
    viewer contributions and the network pays these VC2 producers when
    their films are shown on the channel. Everything on the network is
    open to viewer participation. Current invented Viewer Created Ad
    Messages (VCAM) and regularly features promotional spots created by
    its viewers.

    One of the keys to Current´s success is in the variety of its
    programming. In addition to VC2, viewers of the network will see short
    form Vanguard Journalism pods that are reinventing TV journalism for a
    new generation of viewers. Current has been a huge success story in
    the U.S.A, where it is broadcast in 40 million homes, more than
    doubling the number of subscribers in its first year, and reaches 11
    million homes in the UK. The channel has picked up numerous
    programming awards, and recent pods such as Current´s ´PC Versus Mac´
    spoof have topped the global viral charts.

    The channel broadcasts on Sky (channel 193) and Virgin Media (155)
    in the UK. Visit the Current website at www.current.com

    About The Guardian

    The Guardian launched its network of websites, Guardian Unlimited,
    in 1999 and is recognised as the UK´s most popular newspaper website.
    For the past three years it has been voted the best newspaper on the
    web at the 2007 Webby Awards. Guardian Unlimited recorded record
    traffic of 18,407,758 unique users in October 2007 (ABCe). The
    highest-ever monthly user figure for a UK newspaper site.

    About Salon

    Salon, an award-winning online news and entertainment Web site,
    combines original investigative stories, breaking news, provocative
    personal essays and highly respected criticism along with popular
    staff-written blogs about politics, technology and culture, as well as
    video and audio podcasts. The winner of multiple Webby and Online News
    Association awards, Salon is an Internet pioneer that made the
    transition to Web 2.0, with vibrant audience participation through its
    automated letters to the editor, along with its long-time Table Talk
    and Well communities. Thanks to those new additions to its traditional
    offerings, Salon has doubled its traffic in the last two years and
    plans to roll out many new features in the crucial 2008 election year.