The return of Yahoo FinanceVision
Remember Yahoo FinanceVision? It was Yahoo's attempt to imitate CNBC, except on your computer. Launched in 2000, with an annoyingly overenthusiastic commercial embedded above, dragged on for two years before declining online advertising revenues put a bullet in it. We hear it's rising from the grave. We've confirmed that BusinessWeek columnist and certified Valley Fox Sarah Lacy has been signed as a talking head. Other rumored contributors include VC blogger and TV pundit Paul Kedrosky and manflesh connoisseur Henry Blodget, the disgraced Wall Street analyst and founder of Silicon Alley Insider. Blodget, at least, has experience talking up stocks.
So why bring back this idea of Internet-video finance coverage? Reasons why FinanceVision failed the first time included its supremely buggy technology and low broadband use. (For a more accurate version of how it looked to consumers seven years ago, check out this choppy interview with Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Yamila Diaz.) We're rooting for Lacy, Kedrosky, and Blodget to succeed. But we wouldn't be shocked if Yahoo Finance's new TV programming fails, given Yahoo's on-again, off-again mood when it comes to original content. If it does tank a second time, will the new anchors still tear up during their final episode?