Websites Turn To Talent Agents For Exposure

The entertainment industry has been turning to the Web more often as a way to promote its movies, music, television shows and personalities. Now some Websites are turning to one of the oldest and mightiest forms of celebrity exposure - the agent - to promote themselves through traditional media outlets.

About.com, the network of specialty Websites formerly known as Mining Co., has signed on with the William Morris Agency for representation in all areas of the entertainment industry.

Translation: the agency, best known for representing big-name celebrities, will use its might and contacts to get About.com’s name on talk shows, TV shows, live events, and book contracts.

The agency will also try to boost the exposure of some of About.com’s 650 Website guides who specialize in subjects ranging from bird watching to finance. Possible outlets include guest spots on talk shows, speech bookings, and the creation of entire television shows around a particular guide or theme featured on About.com sites, said Lisa Shotland, a William Morris agent and head of the agency’s corporate advisory/new media group.

The About.com deal may be William Morris’ biggest Internet-related gig, but it is not its first, Shotland said. Other Web companies that have sought the agency’s help are CBS Sportsline, Web ‘zine Nerve, StyleClick.com, and Entertainment Drive, a network of celebrity Websites, Shotland said. A few years ago, the agency negotiated a deal to spin an animated AOL Christmas character into a TV program.

The transition to traditional media doesn’t work for all new media companies, Shotland said. But About.com’s deep pockets of content should translate well into non-Web outlets like books and speeches, she said.

John Caplan, About.com’s senior vice president of marketing, said the goal in signing with William Morris is to leverage the knowledge of About.com guides from the online world to the off-line arena.

"We have 650 people to market. It’s quite an arsenal," Caplan said.