All Things Digital

Last week, I appeared at the second annual Tech Policy Summit, held in Hollywood, which covered a wide range of important issues related to digital topics and public policy.

The one on content was titled, “How New Media Is Changing Content Creation and Distribution.” Conclusion: A lot!

I did video interviews after the session with two of the three panelists: Gregg Spiridellis, co-founder and CEO of JibJab Media; and Andrew Keen, author of the book, “Cult of the Amateur” (the other panelist was Jonathan Taplin, longtime entrepreneur and now a professor at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication).

Both Spiridellis and Keen discuss the changing nature of content and how new media will pay for itself.

Here’s the video (and here is another video I made for a panel I also moderated, on privacy):

Sure, you feel a little guilty about offing that turkey today, but did you ever think about the agonizing death-by-Cuisinart of the cranberries?

Once you watch the warped Thanksgiving video “Sendables”–a must-see showing below (click on through the blank screen and it will start playing)–from the online content creators over at JibJab Media, you’ll never look at that side dish the same again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Venice, Calif.-based company, which vaunted to fame several years ago with its viral hit, “This Land,” recently launched its Sendables product.

It is aimed at the $85 million online greeting-card business dominated by American Greetings and also cheesy “social expression” products (think animated smiley faces) that actually garner substantial revenue.

Sendables offers a range of these higher quality eCards for sale from 50 cents to $3 for all sorts of occasions, along with videos too, many of which are really good examples of simple online content that works perfectly for the medium.

Gregg Spiridellis and his brother Evan started JibJab together in 1999 to try to break the online content code. Here’s a video interview I did recently during a visit I had with Gregg recently at their Los Angeles offices:

I have always been intrigued by what it takes to finally create hit content on the Web.

So far, in truth, there has not been much to speak of.

One of the only really interesting phenoms I can think of–setting aside the Mentos-and-Coke thing–are the cartoon satires of JibJab Media, such as “This Land.” It was a major viral hit online and garnered huge attention outside the Web as well. (And you can see it again below too.)

But even that, as entertaining as it is, was no long-term success, nor did it generate the kind of money a big Hollywood blockbuster can, often no matter the quality.

So it was nice to have this video tour and discussion with JibJab co-founder Gregg Spiridellis at the company’s Venice, Calif., offices about the market for entertainment online, which still has not been figured out.

JibJab is trying to do that in a location that puts them smack in the middle of the entertainment industry, although its methods are decidedly different.

For example, today it launches its new Sendables product, aimed at the $85 million online greeting-card business dominated by American Greetings and also cheesy “social expression” products (think animated smiley faces) that actually garner substantial revenue.

(Its other recent product is called Starring You! Using relatively easy tools, people can cut their their heads into premade JibJab movies, with more than one million heads now created.)

The Spiridellis have higher hopes for Sendables–there will be 200 high-quality cards for sale for from 50 cents to $3 at its launch for all sorts of occasions–seeing it as JibJab’s efforts to upgrade the programming in the sector.

Gregg and his brother Evan (they started the company together in 1999) call today’s e-cards “lame.”

To try to eat into that market with class, the company recently closed a Series B funding with Polaris Venture Partners.

Here’s Gregg Spiridellis and I talking about the state of entertainment on the Web:

And here’s JibJab’s “This Land.”