Meta-grad: USC alum serves up Metascores to entertainment lovers

Metacritic.com, with its unique scoring system, offers consumers compilations of reviews for films, DVDs, music, games and books, all on one comprehensible website.

Co-founders and editors Marc Doyle, Julie Roberts and Jason Dietz aggregate reviews from critics as well-known as Roger Ebert to provide a thorough look into the entertainment industry's latest. With different sections for each genre, readers can read full-length reviews from critics or simply glance at the item's "Metascore."

A Metascore is a score of 1-100 averaged from the critics' ratings. Readers can view ratings of individual critics that have been converted to the 1-100 scale or the cumulative Metascore averaged from all of the critics' ratings and reviews. Reading an item's rating is simple -- the higher the Metascore, the better the reviews the listing has received.

Metascores were formerly posted as single digit ratings, but the editors, with the help of renowned critic Roger Ebert, converted them to the 1-100 system they currently use to give their readers more specific ratings. According to Doyle, Roger Ebert told Metacritic that the single digit ratings were too imprecise and that the 1-100 system would require less rounding when averaging the Metascore. The change went into effect about three years ago.

CNET spokesperson Martha Papalia said staff members at Metacritic.com "enjoy a regular dialogue with the critics, who do not hesitate to contact them when they think an individual score that is assigned to their reviews should be adjusted."

The main goal of the site is "to educate people on the best way to use their entertainment dollar," Doyle explained.

Over 120 critics' reviews from publications like The New York Times and Rolling Stone are quoted on Metacritic. Doyle says that one main objective of the site is to provide the public only with critics that are reliable and can be taken seriously. The Metacritic staff takes the prestige of a critic's publication, the critic's caliber of writing, and the critic's reputation (gathered by talking to other people in the industry) into consideration before posting their reviews on the site.

After its launch in January 2001, Metacritic began generating revenue with advertising, licensing its reviews to companies like AOL and other Internet providers and through affiliates like Amazon.com. The site gets about 210,000 page views a day -- 42,000 of which are registered users, according to Doyle.

These numbers could grow given that Metacritic was recently acquired by CNET Networks. Already changes to the site are underway, with a soon-to-be-launched TV review section in the works, according to Doyle.

Doyle, a graduate of USC's law school, is slated to be featured in the November issue of the USC Trojan Family Magazine.