Prime Time Replay:


Bill Messing
on The Microsoft Network



MsgId: *emedia(62)
Date: Mon Dec 16 20:59:43 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

Tonight's E-Media guest has been changed. Bob Bejan, executive producer for MSN, cannot appear tonight. Bill Messing, who is an assistant producer for the biggest challenger facing Netscape, will answer your questions concerning Microsoft and the future of cyber-journalism. I am Paulette Hodge, moderator for tonight's program. Welcome to E-Media.
MsgId: *emedia(63)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:00:42 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

Bill Messing, are you online?
MsgId: *emedia(64)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:00:45 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

Hi Paulette! Ready when you are.
MsgId: *emedia(65)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:02:15 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

First--tell the audience a little more about who you are and what you do for MSN. Is your background with computer technology, or did you come from a completely different field?
MsgId: *emedia(67)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:05:00 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

I am senior producer for OnStage at MSN and that's where all of our entertainment programming goes. It's divided into six channels. But you asked about me. My background is not in the technology side. I have your classic mixed multi-media resume which means a bit of film, tv advertising, movies.
MsgId: *emedia(68)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:06:08 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

How long did it take to construct MSN? How has the response to your software and systems been? And where is it in comparison to AT&T's Internet software?
MsgId: *emedia(69)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:09:48 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

I'm gonna take the first question, because MSN actually had genesis with a proposal from Sietelman to Gates which resulted in the launching of the original MSN last August, in 1995. So if you ask how long it took to construct MSN, it has been three or four years in the making, however, in January of this year, following Microsoft Internet Strategy Day, otherwise known as Pearl Harbor Day, we decided to take MSN to the internet and completely redesign it. What you see today is all new in the past 10 months. We announced the official launch last week.

For the second question, all you have to do is read the reviews. People are really noticing how different it is, not only from the old MSN, but everything on the web. There's not really a comparison, with AT&T or anyone out there. I want to stress that this is the content enterprise at MSN that we're talking about, not the access.

MsgId: *emedia(71)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:13:17 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

Well, I'm not sure you'd want to relate the birth of MSN with a day of bombing! :-) Being primarily a print journalist, I find it interesting that MSN's services are described as "cyber-journalism." There seems to be a heavy focus, according to the descriptions of MSN, on entertainment. What are the specific elements of the service?
MsgId: *emedia(73)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:17:09 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

MSNBC is cyber-journalism and that appears as channel 1 on MSN. It's true that in the OnStage part of the service, the emphasis is on entertainment, original entertainment, if you like. But MSN also includes several other sections, namely Essentials, Communicate, and Find that include much more practical services for booking your travel, buying your car, tracking your investments, sending e-mail to your mom, or browsing the web. So entertainment is important as a differentiator -- it certainly distinguishes us from anything you see on AOL -- but it's not all there is.
MsgId: *emedia(74)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:17:48 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

Now, there are parts of MSN completely devoted to certain entertainment areas--specifically, your "Star Trek" site. How many Trekkies do you have on staff? Why "Star Trek" and not, say "Babylon 5," "Twilight Zone," or even a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" area? Will you be adding areas like these--(an "X-Files/Millenium" area perhaps)?
MsgId: *emedia(75)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:20:11 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

Trekkies? All of them. "Star Trek" has a huge following, obviously it's unlike anything else, but you're absolutely right, we're always looking for the next great property. You hit on some really good ones.
MsgId: *emedia(76)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:21:08 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

What tie-ins are you running for MSN? From the commercials, it seems that you're going for the "Generation X" consumer. I'd also heard that MSN was going to sponsor some independent music festivals nationwide as well. Is this true?
MsgId: *emedia(77)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:23:32 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

Everybody who buys a new Windows 95 PC is getting an MSN disk. We're running promotions in movie theatres, on Pepsi cartons. Generation X is an important audience for us, but it's just one of several we're looking to attract. We're really targeting first-time online users more than anything. It's true we are looking at possibilities for sponsoring all kinds of things.
MsgId: *emedia(78)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:24:08 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

Where did MSN first start out? It doesn't seem that, until recently, anyone really heard about the network. Yet you have 1.5 million people online. Had MSN been a regional service, or tied in specifically with Microsoft's users?
MsgId: *emedia(80)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:26:17 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

MSN has always been a Windows 95 service. So if you're running Windows 3.x or a Macintosh, you probably haven't had a chance to try it. But it's not at all regional -- in fact, we're totally worldwide -- we have members all over the world. Japan is one of our biggest markets.
MsgId: *emedia(83)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:30:20 EST 1996
From: guest At: 206.228.14.48

Why have services such as WoW and MSN not been as successfull has they have been hyped to be? Could this be related to the fact that they are only for the Win95 platform?
MsgId: *emedia(86)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:36:12 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

I can't speak for WOW, but MSN has never really been hyped. It's certainly gotten its share of attention, though, and it hit a million users in seven months. A feat which took other online services many years. Now that we have released our new version, we expect subscription to go through the roof.
MsgId: *emedia(82)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:29:12 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

I'd like you to get into the six areas of MSN: The Plaza, Retrospect 360-deg., Communicate, and your own, OnStage.
MsgId: *emedia(84)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:34:14 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

I'm going to focus just on OnStage. Retrospect is a show on Channel 3 -- our channel for people who are motivated to learn about the world around them. This is the place for science, nature, arts, history. Retrospect interprets current events in a historic perspective. For instance, it'll take on topics like censorship or gambling as issues in the culture, and then take a look back over the rest of the century. It makes use of a tremendously innovative Active-X control that actually allows you to make a complete 360 degree sweep of the show, as if you were inside a circular gallery.

Other shows on Channel 3 include Mungo Park which is a adventure/travel site named for a Scottish explorer. "Slate," Michael Kinsley's politics and culture magazine, and RIFFF, which is an amazing interactive music video studio, using a technology called Active Music to let you jam with the artists themselves. We can talk about the other channels, too.

MsgId: *emedia(87)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:38:29 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

The Rifff(?) area sounds very cool. What were things you saw in Microsoft's other forays into the Internet that you saw and didn't like when creating MSN? What is the trouble you're finding in getting to the "number one" slot as an Internet-provision service?
MsgId: *emedia(89)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:41:55 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

It's not so much Microsoft forays into the Internet, as that the Internet itself wasn't ready for Prime Time. We always knew we wanted a visually-rich experience, audio, and a fertile community. But the tools to do those things didn't exist even a year ago. The trouble, if you can call it that, in getting to number one still has more to do with overcoming basic usability obstacles than anything else. The sound of a modem connecting is still an unknown thing to many people.

You're still confusing us with an internet access provider, which is different than running an online service. It's true most providers offer little in the way of technical support of any kind, let alone multiple platforms. We're definitely considering a Mac version, though we don't have a date for it yet.

Microsoft is not what you think it is. Bet you didn't know we have animators, musicians, mapmakers, video editors, just an incredible array of people here from all kinds of backgrounds. We don't all stay in our cubicles.

MsgId: *emedia(95)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:46:15 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

Right--I understand that you can find it on the Web as well. I also want to say the section devoted to wine buffs is interesting. How did you decide on which topics to give pages to--such as the women's area in MSN? How many women use MSN?
MsgId: *emedia(101)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:50:50 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

About the web -- MSN is completely on the Internet. It's not a proprietary service anymore. That's a big change. As for topics, the shows you see today came about as a result of a pitch process that took place back in March and April. We looked at sixty or seventy different proposals at that time for all kinds of shows. We knew we were going to have some kind of women's programming -- UnderWire jumped out -- we keep taking pitches by the dozen and the service just keeps evolving. In fact, we're launching a really cool game show tonight called NetWits! Nobody knows how many women use computers, let alone the Internet, let alone MSN. If you find out, you should tell us.
MsgId: *emedia(102)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:51:35 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

How has your "Plaza" site been faring during the holiday season? How many stores do you have for that channel?
MsgId: *emedia(106)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:54:34 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

Plaza's not a channel, it's a merchandising site in the Essentials area. I don't know exactly how many stores are in there today, but it's going to grow considerably now that we've released Merchant Server.
MsgId: *emedia(97)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:48:31 EST 1996
From: guest At: 131.107.3.26

Why doesn't MS open a Hollywood studio? Are they still involved with Dreamworks?
MsgId: *emedia(104)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:52:43 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

Think about what a studio is, and you'll discover we are one. The difference is we're targeting a different medium -- the ones that are out there today -- but otherwise there's no big difference and it's diminishing every day. We're invested in Dreamworks.
MsgId: *emedia(105)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:53:54 EST 1996
From: guest At: 131.107.3.26

Is MS interested in Mike Ovitz?
MsgId: *emedia(107)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:55:29 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

Is Mike Ovitz interested in us?
MsgId: *emedia(108)
Date: Mon Dec 16 21:56:04 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

MSN sounds like "interactive television"--from the description of programs as "channels" to the high-visual content. Do you believe the Internet and MSN will replace TV as the first source of entertainment and information for the majority of people?
MsgId: *emedia(110)
Date: Mon Dec 16 22:00:47 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

We actually think of it as theatre. The design of the service reflects a theatrical sensibility and it creates the same sense of shared experience. New media don't tend to replace old ones. TV didn't replace radio. Internet won't replace TV. You will see networking become more ubiquitious. This industry can only go in one direction -- it only has one direction to go. Connectivity only increases with time, as does bandwidth, so that you might not even notice it happening. Soon enough your telephone will have a web browser on it. The TV will have a computer inside. The computer will have a TV tuner, so what is that?
MsgId: *emedia(112)
Date: Mon Dec 16 22:01:35 EST 1996
From: Paulette At: 152.163.233.33

That's it for tonight! Thank you, Bill Messing, for coming online to discuss MSN and the new arena of entertainment.
MsgId: *emedia(113)
Date: Mon Dec 16 22:02:26 EST 1996
From: Bill_Messing At: 152.169.78.203

Good night and thank you, too!


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