Type Unit of Radio One Area served United States Headquarters New York City Founded 2007 | Industry Digital media Website interactiveone.com Founder Cathy Hughes Parent organization Radio One | |
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Key people Alfred C. Liggins III (CEO)
Tom Newman (president) | ||
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Interactive One is an American digital publishing company with a portfolio of websites focused on African American and Hispanic audiences. It also provides businesses with a variety of digital marketing and distribution services.
Contents
History
Interactive One was founded in 2007 as a separate division of Radio One. It was launched in May 2008 as an online community to complement Radio One's other media properties targeting African American audiences. Radio One president and CEO Alfred C. Liggins is also the CEO of Interactive One, and Tom Newman serves as the company's president.
Interactive One operates approximately 70 digital properties featuring news, lifestyle, entertainment and religious content, including News One, The Urban Daily, BlackPlanet, HelloBeautiful, MiGente, BlackAmericaWeb, Global Grind and BlackDoctor.org. As of 2011, Interactive One is the largest network of owned and operated sites aimed at an African American audience, based on the total traffic of its websites and radio stations. By January 2013, Interactive One's properties were drawing more unique visitors than BET Networks and Univision combined.
The company started branching out to the Hispanic market in September 2012, with the announcement of Zona De Sabor ("Flavor Zone"), an English-language website offering news and entertainment content for an urban Latino audience. This came on the heels of the creation of MiGente, a Latino-themed social network.
On September 12, 2012, the White House hosted a live event with Interactive One properties News One, Hello Beautiful, Black Planet, The Urban Daily and The Grio. Officials from President Barack Obama's administration, including Melody Barnes, Valerie Jarrett and Shaun Donovan, answered questions submitted through Interactive One sites about the US job market and economy.
In July 2013, TV One announced News One Now, a morning news show based on News One. The live, one-hour weekday program hosted by Roland Martin premiered on November 4, 2013, also streaming live on Radio One. Based in Washington, DC, the show provides news and analysis of politics, entertainment, sports and culture, from an African American perspective.
In February 2015, Interactive One launched HB Studios, a video production studio focused on creating scripted and unscripted programming about women and the diversity of their experiences. With about a dozen original video series in development for 2015, HB Studios programming will be featured on the iOne Women Channel and HelloBeautiful.com, along with channels on YouTube and Facebook. HB Studios' inaugural release was the 14-minute documentary Women on Top, featuring interviews with women including Soledad O'Brien, Lisa Leslie, Tia Mowry, Jody Watley, Beverly Johnson and others.
Partnerships
In July 2011, Interactive One and NBC News announced a partnership, combining their editorial and sales resources. The main focus was initially on aligning NBC's African American news site, The Grio, with News One, which would take the lead on advertising sales.
In April 2013, Interactive One announced it would team up with Global Grind, a website founded by Russell Simmons and focused on pop culture and music content for African American and Hispanic audiences, agreeing to a multi-year partnership, in an effort to improve its reach with urban audiences. Under the terms of the deal, Interactive One manages advertising and technology interests for Global Grind. In 2013, Interactive One also partnered with Voxxi, an English-language website aimed at Latinos; and multimedia company Real Times Media, with the Real Times Media Digital Network, a group of websites supported by Interactive One. In July 2014, the company partnered with the fashion website StuffFlyPeopleLike.com.
Advertisers
Interactive One's advertisers include Ford, American Airlines, Home Depot and Hewlett-Packard.