Scott Moore

The new guy in charge of content for Microsoft's MSN knows a thing or two about the company -- and one of its biggest competitors. Scott Moore, 47, worked at Microsoft for more than a decade before shifting to Yahoo's media business. Earlier today, Microsoft said he'll be returning as executive producer of MSN, responsible for content and programming strategy.

In an interview after the announcement, Moore discussed his plans for his new position, his thoughts on coming back to the Redmond company, and his outlook for online content and advertising in the midst of the recession. Read on for excerpts from the interview.

Q: Why did you decide to return to Microsoft?

Moore: Well, when I decided to leave Yahoo, it certainly wasn't with that in mind. I have a startup idea I've been working on for a long time, and it was on my list to talk to my former colleagues there to discuss the idea with them and see if they could be a distribution partner. It turned out they had somewhat similar ideas about the opportunity I was pitching, and said, well, why don't you come do it here and run the rest of MSN content and programming.

 

I thought about that a little bit, and it started to feel like something I could get really excited about. It wasn't what I was expecting, so it was a pleasant surprise. One of the things that has struck me in terms of the business I'm in, the online media business, is scale really matters a lot, and there are very few companies that have the scale that Microsoft and MSN have. Being able to do online media at that kind of scale across a number of different areas -- that's sort of what I've made my career doing the last few years, and it's fun to be back ... and working with these huge audiences.

Q: So as part of your new position, you're going to be able to implement the concept that you had planned to do as a startup. What is that concept, and how will it fit within Microsoft?

Moore: Well, we haven't made the exact plans yet, obviously. It's all preliminary. What I mean is that the area that I'm interested in is local news and information, and local is an area that MSN is particularly interested in, and has some really great assets already in terms of Live Earth and some of the other local advertising products. So exactly how that develops we're going to have to get into it and figure it out. But part of my process was learning that the folks that I was talking to at Microsoft saw the same opportunity in similar ways, and were enthusiastic about us pursuing that together.

Q: Microsoft over the years has gone back and forth on being an originator of content. How do you see that under your leadership?

Moore: Certainly, if you look at MSNBC [where Moore was once president], they originate a lot of content. There is the engine within Microsoft that already does that. And Microsoft has some other projects in the works that are along those lines. The thing that worked really well for me at Yahoo was the combination of aggregation -- licensed content -- and a small amount of original content that you can't get anywhere else.

So you differentiate your offering from anybody else who's just doing aggregation. But the aggregation is incredibly efficient. So that's the formula that probably we'll continue to pursue. I don't think it would be wise for Microsoft to go into a huge amount of original content creation. They already have some and probably it's a matter of tuning that programming and seeing if there are some other things that we might want to do that are original that will set us apart and attract people to us as a result of it.
 
Q: One of the partnerships Microsoft struck was with Reveille, as an example. Do you see that being a model that you might follow?

Moore: That's right, and they have a similar relationship with Berman-Braun, which is headed by [previous Yahoo media chief] Lloyd Braun, who I used to work for. So yeah, an area of online media that I'm very intrigued with is this notion of people using the medium as an entertainment vehicle, as opposed to news and information.

The Web is, at this point, dominant as a source of news and information. It isn't yet dominant as a primary entertainment vehicle. And yet, you see things like Xbox and online gaming in general, or video watching, whether it's at YouTube or MSN Video. Those things are gaining ground. ...

I think there's a lot of opportunity there, and I think over the next few years you're going to see that trend continuing. Some people are giving up their cable TV and relying just on the Web to get those kinds of experiences already. I think Microsoft is extremely well-positioned to take advantage of that trend. My time down in L.A. and some of the relationships that I've developed down there could really come to bear nicely on taking advantage of that trend.
 
Q: Obviously the economy has taken a turn here, and online advertising is projected to be not as strong as perhaps it was in the past. How might that affect what you can do from a content perspective?

Moore: Well, certainly we have to be prudent and be cognizant of the revenue potential of anything we do. All of the projects that I've done I've focused a lot on what's the ROI, can we do this in a way that's not only creative and fun for users but that also serves the needs of advertisers, and will help us make money. ...

That being said, online as a medium is certainly in a heck of a lot better shape than pretty much any other medium, whether you want to talk about broadcast television or newspapers or magazines. So the continuing share shift of advertising dollars to online will mitigate at least some of the economic situation.

But you don't need a PhD in economics to know we're going through a really scary time right now. None of us, at least not in my lifetime, have ever seen anything like this. So we'll have to be cognizant of that and factor it into our plans.
 
Q: Could it shift to a different model, such as premium subscriptions?
 
Moore: Well, possibly. I was publisher of Slate, and the first week I got rid of the subscriptions on Slate because they were not working, and the thing took off after that. The problem with doing subscriptions is that unless you have something for which there is not a ready substitute out there for free, it's really difficult to charge. The only content play that has been successful with that is the Wall Street Journal, and there is no real substitute for the Wall Street Journal if you're a business person and value that content. Even they have a hybrid model. So I think it's definitely possible, but I don't have anything in mind today that I think is ripe for that approach.
 
Q: You're in this interesting situation here where Jeff Dossett replaced you at Yahoo. He was formerly in the position you're taking now. How do you feel about that switch that you guys made?
 
Moore: It's a little bit ironic, maybe even a little bit surreal. But in the media business, it's not all that unusual. Editors of magazines sometimes go to become editors of other magazines, and programmers of networks move from one network to another. So that in itself is not particularly unusual.

The juxtaposition of him going there and me coming back to Microsoft is obviously sort of odd, but beyond that, I like the bet that I've made. I had a great run at Yahoo, I really enjoyed it, but I also worked at Microsoft for almost 11 years. It's a great company. Many of the people that I'm going to be working closely with I know well, and have relationships with, and I think, frankly, Microsoft is very well positioned.

Particularly in a tough market where competitors are pulling back, Microsoft's well positioned take share and grow its business and do things that are really exciting. My job is going to be to build audience and build engagement.