The Social

Social site Buzznet, whose CEO makes it clear that he's hoping to compete with the likes of MySpace and MTV on the pop culture front, has nabbed a new executive from TMZ.com. Alan Citron, former general manager of the AOL-owned entertainment site, will become head of "special projects" at the company.

In the world of celebrity news, saying you've hired a TMZ alum is kind of like saying you've hired a Googler. But it's not a completely serendipitous catch: before TMZ, Citron was senior vice president of marketing at Movielink, which also counted current Buzznet CEO Tyler Goldman among its ranks.

Buzznet's strategy has been mixing a social network with editorial content rolled up from users as well as preexisting blogs that the site has acquired, like Stereogum and Idolator. An investment from Universal Music Group has given the site access to the record label's catalog, too.

Citron, who got his start as an editor and writer for the Los Angeles Times, has also been among the executive ranks of USA Network Interactive, Ticketmaster, and MusicNet.

Buzznet, the social network whose CEO told CNET News.com in April that he'd like to build "the next Viacom," has launched a sister site: Celebuzz, a community for enthusiasts of celebrity news and gossip. It's been in private beta for some time now.

Already dominated by the likes of Perez Hilton, Popsugar, and the AOL-owned TMZ.com, celebrity gossip is a niche of the Web that some might say doesn't need another outlet. But Celebuzz general manager Karina Kogan told CNET News.com that it doesn't matter. Research showed that celebrity gossip fans are more than happy to use "more than one source to get the same exact story. They're interested in different points of view, and frankly, they're happy to look at the same photo ten times, just in different settings."

She also asserted that Celebuzz offers something new. "There is no community dedicated to celebrity out there," Kogan said. "There are news aggregators, there are blogs, but there is no community for the celebrity fans."

(Credit: Celebuzz)

Celebuzz features a full-out social network with user-created content in addition to editorial content coming from in-house reporters, partner bloggers, paparazzi photo agencies, celebrities themselves, and "expert panelists" like celebrities' personal trainers and plastic surgeons. At launch, Kogan said, it's already the "fourth-largest celebrity site on the Internet, period," following People.com, TMZ, and Yahoo's OMG.

Buzznet itself focuses on music, but had already inked "deep partnerships" (read: borderline acquisitions) with celebrity gossip blogs Just Jared and A Socialite's Life. The two social networks are not yet interoperable, but Kogan said that's on the way.

Still, she said, they're meant to be kept separate. "We definitely don't want to shove celebrity media down the throats of music fans," Kogan explained.

Universal Music Group has invested an undisclosed amount in pop-culture social network Buzznet.

Beyond the financial investment, this means that Universal artists will post promotional blogs on Buzznet, and the social site will have access to the label's music and video catalog.

Last week, Buzznet CEO Tyler Goldman told CNET News.com to expect a partnership announcement that would bring more audio content to the site.

According to a release from the two companies, this is "one of the first times that a music company will be directly involved in developing editorial programming for a social-media site, with both companies sharing in the revenue."

It's more extensive than Universal's partnerships with other social networks; the label has licensed its catalog to MySpace.com for its MySpace Music endeavor, as well as to music-focused social-media site Imeem.

With only 10 million active members--that's less than a tenth the size of News Corp.'s MySpace--Buzznet has some growth to do before it reaches its goal of being an MTV-caliber pop-culture influencer. The site has been aggressively bolstering its editorial content, acquiring music blog Stereogum and launching sister blog Videogum, with several hip blogging veterans at the helm.

Earlier this week, Buzznet announced that it had purchased another music blog, Idolator, from former owner Gawker Media.

Goldman hinted that more partnerships with big media companies were on the way for Buzznet. That's good, because having a single label behind a community and editorial site is a bit questionable.

Not only does Buzznet own music blogs like Stereogum and Idolator, but it also has deep partnerships with irreverent gossip blogs such as A Socialite's Life and Just Jared.

Let's hope that Universal's investment doesn't start tainting Buzznet's snappy editorial.

Buzznet.com CEO Tyler Goldman doesn't want people to think of his company as a social network. No, what Goldman says he's running is a music- and pop-culture-focused community site.

"We definitely wouldn't view ourselves as a social network, and we probably wouldn't disagree with folks that say the world doesn't need another social network," Goldman, a former executive at Movielink and founder of Broadband Sports, said in an interview. His preferred jargon? "Socially programmed communities." Buzznet, in other words, wants to be the 1980s-era MTV of the social-media age: an epicenter for youth trends and cultural influence, where the content is fueled by a community rather than hand-picked editorial content.

Goldman said he sees Buzznet as "much more competitive in term of an offering with an MTV.com or a Yahoo Music" than a MySpace or Last.fm.

That's some ambition. In an age when Facebook takes up all the headlines, MySpace still dominates traffic, LinkedIn invites are choking our inboxes, and the Web-futurist set is trying to come up with solutions to all the usernames and passwords we currently juggle, saying that you want to be the next big social-networking destination has gotten a little déclassé. And when the economy's grown tepid, the music industry has fallen and can't get up, and every day another blogger is talking about the tech bubble bursting, saying that you want to be the next mass-media hotspot is bound to raise a few eyebrows.

Buzznet's strategy is unapologetically think-big. Founded in 2005, the Los Angeles-based company counts veteran execs from Yahoo and Time Inc. among its upper ranks.

"Our goal is to build the world's biggest and best music experience and then to do the same thing in other pop culture topics," Goldman explained. Instead of starting from a grassroots following, the way MySpace did as a hub for independent band promotion, Buzznet wants to break out at the top by scoring high-profile investors, tasty acquisitions, and powerful partnerships. The company is rumored to have roped in about $25 million in venture funding, with one of the reported investors Universal Music's Interscope. (Goldman declined to comment on that.)

And Goldman said that next week, Buzznet will make the first of a number of partnership announcements designed to get more audio content on the site. When asked if that meant a record label deal, Goldman replied. "That's a logical assumption."

Buzznet does appear to be off to a strong start. Nielsen numbers last summer indicated a spike in popularity, and its VideoCensus numbers for February ranked Buzznet as one of the top 10 online video destinations for the 12-24 age demographic in the U.S., ranking ahead of Facebook and popular gaming-culture site 1Up. Goldman said Buzznet is now pulling in over 10 million visitors per month, and that because of its focus on content rather than networking, advertising click-through rates are promising. He declined to provide numbers.

But at the same time, Alexa traffic graphs show Buzznet has still been growing much more slowly than Imeem, another acquisition-happy social-media site targeting music fans. And MySpace has opted to refocus its efforts on media content with the launch of .

As a result, Buzznet's team is attempting the dual challenge of building a social community as well as pulling in established content--and its readers--through niche acquisitions. Gossip blogs JustJared and A Socialite's Life have already been pulled into the Buzznet fold, and earlier this month, Buzznet announced the acquisition of Stereogum, a popular independent music blog, and announced the launch of a sister blog, Videogum, edited by New York blogging veterans Gabe Delahaye and Lindsay Robertson.

It wasn't a traditional acquisition. Stereogum had been owned by the Pilot Group, the investment firm operated by former AOL executive Robert Pittman, who was so impressed by Buzznet that he traded it in exchange for an equity stake. "Pilot Group approached us awhile ago, and we have some common friends there," Goldman said of the Stereogum acquisition, which was finalized earlier this month. "They were interested in investing in the company. Unfortunately, we had already finished our investment round, so (the Stereogum trade) became an opportunity for them to invest in Buzznet."

Up next, per blog rumors, is reportedly Qloud, a startup backed by AOL founder Steve Case that makes music applications for social-networking sites. That's another rumor on which Goldman wouldn't comment.

But he would comment on the future. When asked if he was willing to say he wanted his company to be the next MTV, in true Buzznet fashion, he aimed higher. "I would say more the next Viacom," he replied excitedly. "We believe this formula of social-media programming is very successful and applies to all areas of pop culture...television, film, fashion, celebrity."

So have they made any mistakes along the way? Goldman was willing to admit to one.

"We've done a poor job," he said, "of explaining that we're not a social network."