After Split With Yahoo, GoodMorningAmerica.com Goes It Alone

By A.J. Katz 

ABC News has been making a concerted effort to build up its digital and social channels, particularly for the mornings, and that hard work pays off today with the launch of GMA’s new website, GoodMorningAmerica.com.

“What we have done is create a sharp and fun slate of new content on new platforms, which allows us to reach not only our GMA audience, but maybe reach an audience that hasn’t traditionally watched our show,” GMA senior executive producer Michael Corn told TVNewser.

There has been a digital operation at ABC News for decades, but digital and TV were almost “silos,” as Corn put it.

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“Many people are consuming digital-only content, and because of that, the content will be different,” said Corn. “It will no longer only be a tease, it will be more fulfilling and that’s different from the old way of doing things and it’s really good for our brand.”

The morning show digital re-launch comes as ABC’s partnership with Yahoo shifts from hosting the morning show page to a content partnership. GMA entered into a web traffic-sharing partnership with Yahoo in October 2011 which parked Good Morning America’s online home at gma.yahoo.com.

GMA has benefited from the massive traffic delivery of Yahoo, now a part of Oath. According to ComScore, Oath sites trailed only Google, and ranked higher than Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon in unique visitors in February.

With that deal over, web traffic will almost certainly decline.

VP and gm of Good Morning America digital Terry Hurlbutt says that is motivating the editorial and marketing teams.

“Our digital ad sales team has always been engaged and hard at work selling GMA content,” said Hurlbutt. “The new products we’re adding and the new audience we’re reaching will give everyone new opportunities to think about more innovation.”

GoodMorningAmerica.com (gma.com was taken by luxury car maker Genesis) includes a responsive design with content that speaks to the GMA TV viewer.

“It’s designed to be there whenever our fans want information and inspiration,” said Hurlbutt. “Whether that’s first thing in the morning when they’re waking up and checking their emails through the newsletter, or if they’re taking a break during the day and just want to come to our site to get a dose of what’s going on in the world.”

The newsletter, a first for GMA, is called GMA Wake-Up and will hit subscriber inboxes between 6 – 6:30 a.m., starting today.

Another interesting aspect of the new site is how talent will be engaging with it. Corn said that the anchor trio of Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan and George Stephanopoulos will all be providing original content on the site, “and they’re very excited about it.”

Here’s a look at the homepage this morning:

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