By: Valerie Milano

 Paul Hewitt. the new Senior Vice President, Network Communications for the CW, kicked off the panel discussion at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Beverly Hills by introducing Dawn Ostroff, network president. Heading into their 5^th season she explained their strategy, “Because of the young viewers that we target, we always try to be innovative in everything that we do, and that means our programming, our marketing, our sales approach as well as our digital space. As the first network born in the digital age, as we say, tapping into all of the different media platforms isn’t just part of our strategy, it’s actually in our DNA, influencing everything that we do. If you think about it, we were the first network to use Twitter and Facebook to connect with our audience and talk about our shows. And what’s interesting is that now Facebook and Google meet with their clients and ask if they could use us as an example as to how they should be using the technology.” To that, the CW is adding a full set of commercials to programming on cwtv.com.

CW started summer programming without a lot of fanfare or promotion by debuting “Plain Jane” this week and a Canadian import, “18 to Life”.  Ostroff said “what we wanted to do is just get some original programming on leading into our fall premieres. We knew that these shows would not be supported in the way that the fall shows would be supported, or other shows if they were on during the season. But we just wanted to get them out there. We really believe in “Plain Jane” and I think it’s going to get a lot of exposure on air. We’re going to be airing it a few times, and we’re going to be streaming the show. We’ve gotten a lot of good press about it, so we’re feeling committed to it”.

As of this fall, the CW has original programming every night of the week. Ostroff feels they are building the CW network “show by show” beginning with the breakout hit “Vampire Diaries” and the new drama, “Life Unexpected”, both back for another season. 2 new shows coming this fall are “Nikita” and “Hellcats”.  “Gossip Girl” and “America’s Top Model” return along with the 200^th episode and final season of “Smallville”. “So we’ve come a long way in four short years. We are firmly entrenched in the cultural zeitgeist, especially with young viewers. And going forward, we will continue to be TV – to blog, text, and tweet about and, of course, to talk about.”