AOL Rolls Out ‘Welcome Mat’ in E! Online Deal

One week after slashing half the staff of its 4-month-old proprietary Entertainment Asylum site, America Online is set to announce a partnership with rival entertainment site E! Online. As part of the deal, set to be announced today, Los Angeles-based E! agrees to expand coverage of the online medium on its E! Entertainment Television cable channel.

E! becomes an “anchor tenant” on AOL; E! will have a customized “welcome mat” on AOL, which links to E!’s Web site. While Entertainment Asylum will coexist on AOL alongside E!, the deal highlights the importance of a more established brand name--particularly one that extends beyond the Web--in drawing online users.

“E! mentioning the AOL keywords and covering online entertainment more extensively are part of the overall exchange of value in this deal,” said Rob Jennings, vice president of channel programming for Dulles, Va.-based AOL.

Jennings said the E! deal is a first step toward more partnerships of this type. “You’ll see more announcements similar to this, as we aggressively seek this kind of cross-pollination.”

Lee Masters, chief executive of E! Entertainment Television, said the AOL deal validates E!’s online strategy--which is to provide more than 90% new material, versus that brought in from another medium--and will complement E!’s cable channel. Masters noted that in a recent USA Today poll, E! Online handily topped other entertainment sites, including Entertainment Asylum.