Jay Samit
Vice President
Universal Studios, New Media Group
Jay Samit is a self-proclaimed “techno-nerd” and proud of it. But he has also got a strong entrepreneurial streak and a lot of patience, which have served him well in carving out his own working niche as a vice president at Universal Studios’ New Media Group.
“He’s a techo-geek, but he really doesn’t have that nerdy element to him,” said Genette Davis, a regional manager with Infoseek who worked with Samit on his latest project, a Web site for college students called animalhouse.com. “He’s absolutely entrepreneurial. He’s one of those guys who has a long-term vision. He knows how to cultivate an idea and turn it into something.”
Samit, 37, is in charge of original content at Universal’s New Media Group, a large division at the studio that handles everything from promotional Web sites for movies to CD-ROM games based on films and television shows. Among the big film studios, Universal and Walt Disney Co. have created the most extensive Internet offerings, and Samit’s content group is among the biggest and most important at Universal New Media.
Some of Samit’s past projects include an online multiplayer game based on the Universal shows “Hercules” and “Xena, Warrior Princess,” and an online Hollywood memorabilia auction (it recently auctioned off the bottle from “I Dream of Jeanie”). His current focus is animalhouse.com, a Web site that aims to become an Internet portal for college students or what Samit calls “AOL or MSN with an attitude.” To be launched in September, it will include services for obtaining loans, an online store, voice-to-voice telephony, e-mail and other services.
Samit’s love of computers dates back to his days at UCLA, where he and his friends were some one of the earliest students to have a terminal in their room in the late 1970s.
“I was a nerd before it was cool, before there were millionaire nerds or the richest man in the world was a nerd,” he said. “We used (the terminal) to play various online games back then. It was a way for nerds to goof off around the country.”
After college, Samit spent much of his career building up Van Nuys-based Jasmine Multimedia, a firm that produced interactive software. The company was one of the few profitable ones in its category when Samit sold it in 1996, and then went to Universal.
He says one of his biggest challenges has been maintaining an entrepreneurial atmosphere among his 30-odd staff that’s part of Universal’s 100-strong New Media Group.
“The secret’s simple always hire people brighter than yourself,” he said. “I always had a very flat management style there’s me and everyone else. I like to encourage mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying.”
D.B. Young
