The trailblazing blog PaidContent, specializing in coverage of the business of new media, will be acquired by the Guardian Media Group, writes Kara Swisher tonight in a very sweet scoop. As Swisher says, it's a coup for new media - but it's another great move by the Guardian Media Group as well.
Kara Swisher expects an announcement tomorrow, but the deal was essentially confirmed a few minutes ago on Twitter in a conversation between the Guardian's Technology Editor Charles Arthur and travel writer Craig McGinty. Jeff Jarvis also says he's got embargoed info on it - so this sounds very real. Below are our thoughts about what it means.
PaidContent is a blog that some readers here may not be familiar with, but it has been among the top revenue generators among high-profile new media outlets for several years.
The company has a diverse strategy, including PaidContent.org, mobile content coverage at MocoNews, coverage of India at ContentSutra, PaidContent UK, a number of small industry conference and paid research reports.
PaidContent is regularly the first to report on fundings and acquisitions and the site combines speed with high quality writing. All of us could aspire to perform so well. It is notable that Swisher reports the price was "north of $30 million." While that's a nice sum for a blog, one of if not the largest sums paid for a blog network to date, but only relatively small technology providers on the web go for so little these days.
The site launched in 2002 and its advertisers are B2B service providers that many of us in the consumer tech world don't think about much. They are the companies that power the public facing media services we later consume. All the way back in 2006 Business 2.0 magazine reported that PaidContent was set to bring in $1 million in annual ad revenue.
In March PaidContent hired the former head of DownJones and Yahoo Finance to be its CEO.
The London Guardian, the flagship newspaper of the Guardian Media Group, has become a trailblazer in its own right well before this deal. It's a newspaper with its own developer platform; the newspaper hired then Yahoo Developer Network head Matt McAlister in March.
For the last year and a half the Guardian has run a campaign called FreeOurData.org.uk - agitating for public data APIs and portability. How incredible is that, from a news organization? One of the results of that agitation was the creation of the publicly funded mashup contest called Show Us a Better Way, which we covered here last week.
What do you get when you combine cutting edge tech openness with some of the leading new media publishers online? A kick ass publisher ready for the 21st century, hopefully. Meanwhile the rest of the newspaper industry struggles to survive attacks from Craigslist.
If this deal really goes down, and we expect that it will, it's a great move by all parties involved. Industry watchers have wondered both how leading blogs will be monetized long term and how newspapers will survive. This is one part of that unfolding story.
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Wow. Big money. Wonder what RWW or Mashable etc would be worth. This could be used as a benchmark. Now that's a blog post idea...
Posted by: john conroy
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July 11, 2008 2:26 AM
Congrats to Rafa
Posted by: sam sethi
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July 11, 2008 2:44 AM
If there is one site that deserves credit for providing freelancer journos with an insight into how to self-publish it's PaidContent.
Congrats to Rafat Ali and all those behind the site.
Posted by: Craig McGinty | July 11, 2008 2:45 AM
Hope you are next. Nice to see good people win in the end.
Posted by: sam sethi
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July 11, 2008 3:25 AM
A very very canny move, particularly given the advertiser profile - and if they do allow paidContent to run independently that will also be wise, given how often startups become fuckedups when they're taken over by another culture.
Posted by: Paul Bradshaw | July 11, 2008 3:54 AM
PaidContent has been an inspiration for me ever since it started. If this is confirmed, big congrats to Rafat and team!
Posted by: Richard
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July 11, 2008 3:55 AM
Well done Rafa but I hope no one in their right mind goes and buys TC. It would legitimize Arrington and his bullyboy/ racist friends.
Posted by: Frank Davies | July 11, 2008 3:58 AM
Perhaps nitpicking, but the name of the paper isn't and has never been the London Guardian. The actual title now is The Guardian, but prior to that in the dim and distant past it was the Manchester Guardian.
While its main office is now in London, the paper still maintains its registered office and a sizable presence in Manchester, the city where it was founded. (Check the address in the footer of guardian.co.uk.)
Sorry, but as a northerner it gets on my nerves when people attribute things to London that don't belong to the capital!
Posted by: Andy | July 11, 2008 5:04 AM
Congratulations, great exit :-)
Posted by: SyndicatedPost | July 11, 2008 6:08 AM
I'm just thrilled by this deal. And I think it has major implications for B2B media.
I've posted my thoughts at the URL in the signature line.
Posted by: Paul Conley | July 11, 2008 6:19 AM
I am really happy at this. Nice to know that PC was an inspiration for RWWW, which in turn is an inspiration for me. And Kara did it again :)
Posted by: Bilal Hameed | July 11, 2008 6:25 AM
I read Paidcontent.org everyday. It has top notch reporting, opinion, etc. Very great resource.
Just one thing....have you ever seen a story on that site with more than 1 comment? the community that reads that site barely interacts with the site at all.
RRW has tremendously more community interaction and significantly more traffic.
I've been to a few of the paid content conferences here in NY...bunch of media weenies trying to do deals...
Posted by: great site | July 11, 2008 7:14 AM
It may be useful to know that The Guardian is owned by a certain non-profit trust with a mission to defend free journalism.
This makes it more credible than the average news source, and could explain its success at adapting to a world of free information.
Posted by: BBadger | July 11, 2008 1:23 PM
Thanks Marshall, Richard and everyone here. Sorry couldn't jump in earlier here...someone told me a new iPhone launched yesterday...somehow I missed that :)
Appreciate all the nice words and wishes. We will certainly try very hard to continue to live up to the expectations. I know RWW has build a very valuable community, with the same dint of hard work and perseverance. And think about it: Richard built this from New Zealand...inspirational and shows the true nature of our kind of media.
Posted by: Rafat | July 12, 2008 2:54 PM