Nickelodeon succeeded because Laybourne gambled on mold-breaking shows like Rugrats and The Secret World of Alex Mack, which didn't talk down to kids. The programs celebrated the fears, foibles and triumphs of ordinary children-and hooked them with unsentimental humor. Laybourne is counting on the fact that American women are a rich target for advertisers. They're starting new businesses at a faster rate than men. New technology is making it easier to target women, who are flocking to the Internet in ever-increasing numbers.
Women are media hounds, with one notable exception-watching cable television.
I looked at the programming opportunities and thought this was a horribly underserved portion of the population. We're the leading television resource for women. Oxygen is still just a concept. And it's at the conceptual level that Laybourne claims she will make her biggest impact. This gets a little tricky-partly because the company's a little paranoid about giving away secrets, partly because its ideas are very fluid.