Wes Williams on Netflix's "Qwikster" Announcement

In a posting on Netflix's blog Sunday evening, CEO Reed Hastings apologized for the clumsy way in which the company announced its recent price increases, and then revealed that it plans to spin off its DVD business into a separate brand, "Qwikster" (unfortunately, in light of the increasing importance of social media to the video space, Netflix apparently failed to notice that the @Qwikster Twitter account is already in use--by a pot-smoking Elmo, no less).

In two new columns, "Netflix Separates Conjoined Babies to Throw Out with Bathwater" and "Netflix: Well, It's Out of the Frying Pan," [itvt] blogger, WES WILLIAMS, director of product management for R&D and interactive TV at Scripps Networks, explains the many things that struck him as wrongheaded about Netflix's latest move (and, as this piece from Paid Content shows, he is hardly the only person scratching his head at what seems to be the latest in a series of major public-relations missteps by the company).