Apparently Web Content Is Hot Again

from the content?--really? dept

Thu, Aug 2nd 2007 10:09pm — Mike Masnick

Every few years, someone announces that "content is king" online and that the next big success stories are going to be all about the content. Of course, that never actually seems to happen -- perhaps because the content business is a tough one, prone to fads and mostly beholden to a cyclical advertising market. A few years back, some people expected a wave of "blog buyouts" after AOL paid $25 million for Engadget and a bunch of less popular Weblogs Inc. sites. However, not much came of it. Lately, however, Hollywood is turning its eye towards online content, and with it, we're seeing a small wave of online content buyouts. This week first had the announcement that yet another batch of Hollywood insiders were launching an online video property, following the lead of folks like Will Ferrell, who launched similar properties in the last few months. However, what may be more interesting are the content buyouts. First, Discovery Communications, parent of The Discovery Channel, bought the popular TreeHugger blog for $10 million and now HandHeld Entertainment picked up the well-known (and often infamous) eBaum's world for somewhere around $15 million (possibly more with earnouts). None of these deals are really that big, but it makes you wonder if there's going to be a run on various popular independent content sites, and whether or not content really will be king this time around.

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Filed Under: content

10 Comments

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Hyrulio, 3 Aug 2007 @ 12:46am

!?
WHY would someone pay $15million for eBaumsworld? Most of its content is stolen anyway! And i don't think it's gonna be easy getting rid of that reputation!!
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- SA.CP, 3 Aug 2007 @ 5:39am
  
  Re: !?
  Most of the people who go to that site do not know, nor do they care, that the content is stolen from other sites/online communities.
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Overcast, 3 Aug 2007 @ 6:52am

Another wise decision!
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ScaredOfTheMan, 3 Aug 2007 @ 6:52am

Content vs Services
It seems in the world of internet acquisitions the content sites are always at the bottom of the food chain. The Service sites (photo sharing, video sharing, social networking) always seem to be worth 10 to 100X more. Its strange only because in the bricks and morter world the Content creators are usually the winners, a la dow jones for ($5b)

Think of Ze Frank, he had an awesome show with lots and lots of followers. No one bought him out for millions. Or the guys a Jibjab make great videos...no buyers.

But a site that lets keep your friends notified of your lack of interesting things to do, with no business plan (twitter) that is worth millions
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Lewis Salem, 3 Aug 2007 @ 7:18am

Live by the...
Hyrulio,

Because management lives by the hit count and dies by the hit count.
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Don't believe the hype,, 3 Aug 2007 @ 7:44am

this web thing is way over rated...
The world wide web is just some trendy fly buy night gadget that will go the way of the pet rock or weaving loom....
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Jeff, 3 Aug 2007 @ 7:47am

.
I dunno if the idea is that content is hot so much as it's being able to control content that's hot...
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Jack, 4 Aug 2007 @ 12:03am

Wow - Ten Million for Treehugger; just boggles the mind. What made the buyer offer so much? Are they simply Wal-mart lovers and want to read every single, oh-so-minor but exciting detail of Wal-mart's PR efforts to distract from the fact they pay their employees really poorly and offer lousy health benefits? I mean, com'on, Wal-mart is the topic/company the Treehugger writers have posted about the most.
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ContentHotMyAss, 4 Aug 2007 @ 5:52am

so there you have it -- if you're in content and want to be something more than the bottom of the food chain, it's simple: be an asshole like Calacanis, or a thief like eBaum

good luck.
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sam, 17 Oct 2009 @ 8:44am

sex
very sexy
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