Prodigy spent $650 million building content and graphics to attract consumers

Evidence

Prodigy initially spent an enormous sum (about $650 million) to develop and advertise its network, and built a veritable virtual palace, at least by the standards of the early 1990s. Seeing the text-only approach as too dreary or intimidating, they created a primitive graphic user interface, making it as easy to use as possible. Then came more heavy investment, now in branded content from partnerships with CNN, expensive commissions of well-known columnists, paid interviews with movie stars and athletes, and even a full-time newsroom staffed 24/7 with human reporters in its White Plains, New York, headquarters. To draw in new users, it turned to advertising, and in particular to J. Walter Thompson, which developed the slogan “You gotta get this thing!” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 702

Categorization

• XREF: The branded-content and full-time newsroom strategy foreshadows cable news and modern web-native content production.