In a push for new viewers, PBS Online is set to relaunch on Wednesday, with new Web-only content designed for kids, but also for techies and webheads.
"We want to reach out to as many parents, students, teachers, and Web users as we can," explains PBS' Kevin Dando. "The more content we can offer, the better."
PBS has been slowly but steadily increasing its online profile in the past year - more than 80 PBS TV shows have associated Web sites on the PBS network, with more than 25,000 pages of content. The site already draws 200,000 visitors a week.
The new site is intended to ramp up that presence. With the relaunch, PBS Online will be divided into seven "neighborhoods" - based around science, politics, education, news, technology, kids, and PBS products - each neighborhood essentially being its own separate Web site. The goal is to draw an audience that didn't necessarily come in via TV programming. Techies and webheads will be drawn in, PBS hopes, by the Interface site, which will feature controversial technology insider/columnist Robert Cringely.
But kids will still be the main focus of the PBS relaunch; the Kids site provides a "safe" area where parents can let their children loose, while offering content that is "educational but not spinach." Similar to Disney's upcoming Daily Blast Web site, PBS Kids will leverage popular PBS TV characters such as Elmo for games, stories, and news.
Industry watchdogs are eager to see what PBS Kids will offer, in light of the rapid growth of corporate sites from the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon. Says Shelley Pasnik, director of children's policy at the Center for Media Education: "We've spent a lot of time looking at commercial forces and how they're shaping the Web. It's great to see non-commercial forces growing as well."
Still, a substantial focus of the relaunch will be to raise enough funds to cover the rising expenses of the ambitious project. PBS Online began accepting sponsorship advertising several months ago, and will continue to push this in the relaunch. The relaunch will also expand by 300 titles the ShopPBS area, which has been the lucrative video-vending area of PBS.
That press for funding is stretching the definition of acceptable online "underwriting," which concerns the same groups that are enthusiastic about PBS' growth. "If they keep expanding like this it will cost money. There have been some elements of commercialism that have already encroached on what they do," Pasnik says, referring to ads that have appeared on the site. "Just because it's a new medium doesn't mean those standards should change."
