Content Deals Prepare Inflightonline.com for Liftoff
Inflightonline.com recently signed deals with several lifestyle and business publications to offer Web-enabled air carrier passengers a "flying newsstand."The Internet-based firm announced last week that it has signed agreements with Archaeology Dig, Archaeology Magazine, Business Week Online, Cigar Aficionado, eWeek, Inter@ctive Week, Prevention, The Net Economy and Wine Spectator.
The Web site, currently available on the ground, is expected to debut in airplanes in late fall after testing is completed during the next two months. Online air passengers will be able to view current and archived articles from its magazines for free.
Inflightonline, which has offices in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and Bellevue, WA, plans to generate revenue through ad sales, content deals and transaction-fee sales agreements.
The Web site and its signed publications have a similar target audience of typically affluent people who need to fill downtime, said Fernando Vivanco, spokesman at Inflightonline.com.
"When you're on an airplane, you don't have a lot of options," he said. "Some flights are four or five hours, and trans-Atlantic trips can take eight, nine or 10 hours. So what you have is a pretty captive audience. This also helps drive eyeballs to other sites."
