In 1967, Kathrine Switzer did something quite remarkable. She became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, even dodging the attempt of a race organizer to stop her. Switzer’s tale is one of several AOL is telling in a new video series that will highlight the achievements of women — and AOL’s emphasis on creating original digital content
The series, “Makers: Women Who Make America” features more than 100 interviews with the influential, inspirational and powerful women who have shaped our nation over the past half century. It is designed to be a model of documentary storytelling: thousands of interview clips, edited and unedited, will live a site to be mashed up into a three-hour film. PBS, for its part, will provide both broadcast and digital platforms to distribute the content, including its classroom digital network.
AOL developed Makers.com to house the videos and will distribute the videos across all AOL properties from The Huffington Post to Patch. Tim Armstrong, AOL’s CEO, said at a launch event that the effort is another example of AOL’s commitment to content, which it hopes will differentiate itself in the digital media world.
AOL is undoubtedly eyeing the growing video ad market. “Makers” has a sponsor, skin care brand Simple. The effort follows AOL’s announcement of an ambitious live streaming video network for The Huffington Post, which will launch in the summer.
More in Media
Retailers are rushing to build AI apps. It’s unclear if shoppers will use them
There are almost 900 apps on ChatGPT and 353 Claude connectors, according to AppDiscoverability.com, which tracks AI app data.
Why news publishers are getting into the sports business coverage
Yahoo and Dow Jones are betting on the booming sports business beat, launching new verticals to capture high-value audiences and advertisers.
From ad tech tax to AI data brokers: the new middlemen keep 100%, publishers say
For some publishers, third-party content scraping lands as an even bigger affront than the ad tech tax they’ve spent years navigating – not a share of the pie, but the pie itself.