Tech Town, NC

In an effort to compete in the evolving sphere of new media, Red Herring has redesigned their site, adding social networking features, a more “Web 2.0″ look and feel, and a video only site, RedHerring.tv. We all know the sad state of Business 2.0 and Red Herring understands the realities of the publishing business better than most. When the bubble burst they were forced to abandon their print edition in 2003, but were able to resume publication in 2004. The question now is, will this move pay off?

The site design sports a few must-have upgrades that will surely help the site compete. Initially, the most important upgrade seems to be the addition of reader profiles that allow people to build their identity, manage feeds, and communicate with other readers. Typical Web 2.0 stuff. Visually, the most obvious upgrade is the expansion to a 1028 pixel world, opening up real estate for sidebar features, more links, and of course, more ads.

This new functionality is powered by Blogtronix, which was just reviewed in TechCrunch’s massive “34 More Ways…” post a couple days ago looking at methods for building social networking functions into any website.

This is all promising, and the wider format is big boost, BUT my gut feeling is that the user profiles will go underused. The last thing most of us need is ANOTHER place to enter in our zip code, job history, interests, and pet’s name.

What is most promising by far is the .tv site now associated with Red Herring. With the reputation of the magazine and the desire of startups to make the Red Herring 100, I see them having no trouble getting a steady stream of influencers to come on their “show.” So far the content is filled out by somewhat dry, though fairly substantive, interviews conducted by Sean Wolfe. Unlike Mike Arrington, I’m not a huge fan of Webb Alert, but Red Herring might want to take a few cues from them and recruit a couple Morgan Webb types to attract those of us who are more comfortable talking to women in Second Life than in our First Life. The video site is powered by VidaVee, a white label video solution.

We’ll have to wait and see if this is the brand repositioning that RH needs to survive the next few years, or if it’s a me too move that is too little, too late. I’m hoping it’s the former.

By the way, they need to replace their favicon. Right now it’s showing the amorphous blogtronix molecule logo thing, rather than the more logical Red Herring logo.

** Update **
TechCrunch just posted on the fruits of USA Today’s efforts to become more “social,” and the results don’t look good.