Sheri Herman, the marketing and programming executive who helped launch E! Entertainment Television and later led American Cybercast, has died aged 71. She died on 6 August of heart failure at her home in Telogia, Florida, according to her longtime friend and colleague Martin Lewis, who described her as an inventive, relentlessly forward-looking figure in media.

Herman joined the Los Angeles cable start-up Movietime in 1988 and helped transform it into E!, overseeing brand development and marketing as its subscriber base grew from 2 million to 55 million. In 1993 she became president of American Cybercast, where she launched The Spot, widely regarded as the first web soap opera, raising over $7 million from investors including Intel and Softbank and pioneering early forms of online product placement. A hit-and-run car accident in 2007 forced her to retire at 52; born in Philadelphia in 1955, she began her career in advertising in 1980 before moving into TV and digital media.