Vorys Partner A. Brian Dengler Recommends E-Media Take a Fresh Look at "Monetizing" Online Content on "Focus Washington" Interview

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Traditional media and journalists must adopt new approaches if they are to make money from online content, A. Brian Dengler, a partner with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP who focuses on new media issues, said in an interview with Focus Washington.  

"There's a big difference between traditional media such as newspapers and television and digital platforms like Android phones, iPhones, tablets and the like. And it just takes a different approach to make a living online than it did with traditional media," Mr. Dengler said during an interview in Washington.

Dengler noted a recent report by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University concluded that the media industry must rethink its online business model. Dengler's take on the report is that the report's authors suggest media owners can't take the old model that worked for newspapers and squeeze it into the digital space.  "You should be building new businesses from the ground up that will work in the digital world," Dengler added.

Dengler is helping the industry adjust to momentous change.  For one client, the Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he established — and teaches — an e-media program that focuses on business fundamentals for the new journalism.  "This course teaches journalists how to be entrepreneurs and how to care about the business side of their profession," Dengler said. "Journalists are producing information that can be re-purposed through multiple digital platforms, and they need to learn not only how to find all these distribution channels for their work, but also how to monetize, or make money from, these different platforms."  Dengler is currently working on a new course for Kent State that would focus on making revenue from delivering the news through mobile devices.

Dengler points out that online behavioral advertising (OAB) is one of the hottest topics in e-media and a key part of the e-media practice that includes Gretal Toker, a former colleague at AOL who is based at Vorys' Washington office, and Benita Kahn, chair of Vorys' e-Media, Technology and Intellectual Property group, Dengler said. "You can use technology to figure out what different audiences are doing and what they're interested in on the Internet, place them into demographic categories and be able to serve advertisements against those people who fit within a specific category," he said. The ongoing debate about OAB and privacy raises core questions about the e-media business, Dengler said.

Dengler described Vorys' e-media practice as "a combination of consulting and legal work in which we help e-media, content and information companies make money online."  The practice group also is monitoring and advising clients on pending privacy legislation, including the Do Not Track Online Act of 2011 (S.-913) proposed by Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-W.VA) and the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011 (S-799) introduced by Senators John Kerry (D.-MA) and John McCain (R.-AZ).  Vorys also keeps its clients advised of class action lawsuits involving e-media issues, such as those related to flash cookies, respawned cookies and the asserted creation of profiles of individuals through the use of unique device identification on smart phones.

Vorys was established in 1909 and has grown to be one of the largest Ohio-based law firms with nearly 375 attorneys in six offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Akron, Ohio; Washington, DC; and Houston, Texas. Vorys currently ranks as one of the 200 largest law firms in the United States according to American Lawyer magazine.  For more information, please visit www.vorys.com.

SOURCE Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP