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MediaTakeOut, the gossip site that Wikipedia describes as an entity “catering to people that are interested in drama,” has been a frequently prominent face on the gossip blogging scene for a few years now- featuring often salacious stories the site’s creator claims usually come from bitter exes and burned service industry professionals who have an axe to grind with celebrities.
Oftentimes, when you are unable to find a filthy cellphone picture or bitchy text sent by a celebrity that’s being gossiped about, MediaTakeOut has the goods. Whether the content (or, frankly, site structure) is your cup of tea is neither here nor there- founder and former corporate lawyer Fred Mwangaguhunga clearly has a head for drumming up pageviews and engaging readers.
Mwangaguhunga is taking his site to the next level with some original reality programming for MediaTakeOut, adding a reality web series later this month. Media Take Out Presents: First Date premieres September 18th, and will air weekly. The show chronicles the dating adventures of a man being pursued by three women, and Mwangaguhunga describes the venture as a black version of the popular dating show Blind Date.
But, says the site owner, Media Take Out Presents: First Date will lack a bit of the blog’s characteristic rough edge… to a degree. Mwangaguhunga explains:
“There are young, good looking people. There’s controversy, there’s drama involved… It’s definitely going to be PG-rated. No nudity, no foul language, but we are going to push the edges.”
Mwangaguhunga is working with Fisher Klingenstein Films executive producer Dan Garcia to bring the show to the very, very small screen. And if the content sticks, he says, more video content will be added on MediaTakeOut. Mwangaguhunga thinks it will, and is confident that his demographic will embrace the emerging medium with both arms:
“You look at all the demographics—the under-25 market is watching less physical TV on a television. They’re watching more on their computer, on YouTube, on Hulu, on iTunes… The question is which company is going to be best suited to take advantage of it. We’re coming in early and making aggressive steps to be that company.”
CEO Dan Fisher added to Mwangaguhunga’s sentiment, also positing that the freedom inherent in web content will resonate with audiences in the long term:
“What we’re establishing is a self-sufficient enterprise that we can control and we can release without having advertisers tell us what we can and cannot do, without having networks tell us what we can and cannot do… [We are] able to create value in terms of advertising on the Internet and in terms awareness of DVD and digital and ancillary markets. The whole model we feel is groundbreaking.”
Mwangaguhunga concluded that while he feels streaming original content constitutes “uncharted territories,” he feels very sure that after six years in the business, the direction is the right one for the site.
