'60 Minutes' Goes to Yahoo!; Buick Sponsors

Yahoo has entered a deal with CBS to bring video segments and some interactive content from “60 Minutes” to its users.

Beginning next fall, video from the venerable TV news magazine will appear on a special Yahoo microsite alongside special Web-only features such as interactive maps, photo galleries, Weblogs and a reporter’s notebook.

A preview version of that site will launch this coming Sunday with teaser content and a Buick sponsorship. The first programming will include an interview with Tiger Woods.

Ad products include the sponsorship package and standard Yahoo ad placements. Sponsorships will be sold on either a weekly or quarterly basis, according to Yahoo News Executive Producer Neil Budde.

“We will work together with ad sales to figure out what’s the right way to make this most effective,” he said. “If there were an advertiser that wanted to lock it up for a quarter, we’d look at that.”

The new 60 Minutes microsite on Yahoo will feature two news packages per week. The first will expand on a segment featured during the show’s broadcast. The second will involve a “topical news theme.” The microsite will be updated every Sunday night following the show’s regular airing.

Budde said crew members will join the 60 Minutes set with an eye toward developing video elements for Yahoo and making the show more “online-aware.”

“This is the first wave of a different approach we’re taking with partners,” he told ClickZ News. “Traditionally, we’ve licensed content… that already exists and we repurpose online. In addition to that, [a new focus] is to look for partners who want to do things together — unique online content that plays with their brands… and ties in with our audience and community and technology.”

That remark dovetails with recent comments by Yahoo Media head Lloyd Braun to the effect that the portal will back away from TV-style original programming in favor of more user- and partner-generated content.

Video segments from 60 Minutes already appear on the CBS News Web site. The Yahoo expansion should help the show, which traditionally appeals to an older audience, grow its viewership among young people.