From animationmagazine.net's article:
Quote:
Reporting to Steve Youngwood, exec VP of digital for Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group, Reppen will oversee day-to-day operations, creative direction and business strategy for the Glendale, Calif.-based venture.
Interesting... so she will be in the office. According to the other article, her background is actually in law and business affairs, and she seems to be one of viacom's "a-team" players for their internet content. She went to Wellesley, which is a respected women's college in MA. I suspect she is extremely competant.
Quote:
NeoPets Inc. was founded by Doug C. Dohring in 2000 and acquired by MTV Networks in June of 2005.
That doesn't seem correct...
Quote:
Dohring will continue to be involved with the company as a consultant.
So he's not gone completely, just out of the captain's chair. Neither article says why they replaced him.
From Yahoo's article:
Quote:
NeoPets gave Nickelodeon a head start in capturing what it means to be a successful digital brand today and Kyra will continue to build upon that success," Zarghami said. "NeoPets allowed us to capture the greatest share of kids and tweens on the Internet and is another creative laboratory for us to create great 360-degree content for our passionate and targeted audiences."
"Kyra's expertise, leadership and entrepreneurial spirit were key elements in building Nickjr.com into the number one site for parents of young children and in creating ParentsConnect," said Youngwood. "She will bring the same qualities and digital know-how to NeoPets."
To me that doesn't sound like they're going to turn neopets into Nick Jr. Why would they do that? They already have a site like that. Not only that, but NickJr has a TV channel and shows to promote. It doesn't have to make money. Their target audience probably shouldn't be surfing the internet alone anyway. On the other hand Neopets is a stand-alone product (at least until the movie comes out). It has to pay for itself somehow, be it product sponsors or paid accounts. It's a different beast and won't be grown the same way nickjr.com has been.
If they are after preteens and tweens, they're going to have to compete with myspace and sites like that. Maybe they will add blogging features or something. I wouldn't be surprised to see devlopment into areas like that that haven't existed at all on the site before. It wouldn't surprise me to seeneopets versions of myspace, livejournal, facebook or xanga.
As for nickjr.com, and nickelodeon in general, yeah it's kids programming but it's pretty hip stuff, it's not all crappy After-School Specials and Barny.
The site may change, but it has always been in a state of change. It has changed a LOT LESS in the
last couple years than it did in the
first couple years. Don't expect big radical changes right off the bat.