I recently sat down with Steven Horn, vice president of programming for Metacafe, to talk about how he is defining Metacafe’s distinctive editorial voice to drive the consumption of online video, specifically around exclusive, premium short-from content. Horn has more than 15 years in digital media, and lives and breaths entertainment content everyday. He loves to connect audiences with the right content for them. He joined Metacafe earlier was named Vice President of Programming in August 2010. Prior to Metacafe, Horn served as director of programming and content at VUDU. He also previously served as vice president of editorial at Fox Interactive Media, where he led editorial programs for: Rotten Tomatoes, MySpace and IGN.com. In this role, he developed deep connections with Hollywood studios and television production companies which has says helps give Metacafe an edge on acquiring and programming premium content. According to Horn, his editors make better programmers than machine driven algorithms, because editors know what readers want. That's the big differentiator, he says, between an editor and a search engine or algorithm: "To us, it comes down to this very simple philosophy... being an editor is a bit of an art form. There's nuance in programming." Horn believes that there's a certain craft to programming and that Metacafe's approach provides greater value to consumers and to content creators. He and his team all deep ties into Hollywood as writers, editors and programmers. He says their style is a bit of a throwback to the old school newspaper bullpen style. He and his team get together every day, exchange ideas, build packages around entertainment properties, find creative and fun ways to involve advertisers, and create deeply integrated content experiences with the movies, games and other intellectual properties. Editors can also pick up the phone and call a studio for an exclusive that can appear on Metacafe days before other sites, or only on Metacafe. For more information, go to: ... Distributed by Tubemogul.
