It's not a secret to most Internet marketers that comedy on the Web has been a strong driver of viewers.
The report that Time Warner's "This Just In" comedy Web site is closing down at the end of the month, makes me wonder if the space is too crowded on the Web to gain any solid traction.
I'm not sure that's the case, although general sites, like in many categories, are getting harder to compete in. Many of the sites are built around very similar premises, so the become commoditized in the minds of the viewers.
Like anything else, you just can't throw up comedy and think you'll have a hit because comedy is strong on the Internet.
I think what's going to happen here, and what we must consider is comedy is maturing online. Our humor sites must offer something different from others to be competitive in the future. Sounds easy, but not that many are doing it.
I'll say it again, only a few big sites will survive in any general category online, no matter what it is. From there it's always going to be about niche. I think the demise of "This Just In" was a signal that the time has come to do that. It won't be the last comedy site to close down.Scale will never happen with more than a few companies in any chosen general field. If we don't win the battle for scale in our chosen field, we need to immediately switch to thinking niche if we want to survive. For comedy sites that time has probably come.
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